The Best Places To Shop In India...

Bengaluru owns a few of India's glossiest high streets that provide a 'significantly better shopping experience' compared to other markets in India.

Over the years, India's high streets have gotten more and more sleek and shiny, offering a pleasanter shopping experience to those who come strolling down them.

International real estate consultancy, Knight Frank recently conducted a survey, as part of its Think India Think Retail 2023: High Street Real Estate Outlook annual retail report, of 30 of India's shopping thoroughfares.

Their results showed that always civilised Bengaluru had some of the country's prime high streets, with MG Road topping the list of our nation's 10 best streets to shop at and three other Bengaluru streets finding a toehold.

Browse on to find out who were the other members of India's elite high street club.

The survey chose the top high streets based on convenience, looking at access and parking strengths. And also for how varied the retailers were ie the strength of the shopping offering, and at the layout and planning of the street.

'Inward looking markets like Khan Market in New Delhi and DLF Galleria in Gurugram scored very low', but shopping markets 'aligned' along an access road did quite well.

Interestingly, top high streets are not necessarily the areas asking for the priciest rent from retailers. Although Linking Road in Mumbai does command whopping rents.

Another trend to note: Ahmedabad's SG Highway, which did not find a place in the top 10, was amongst the 30 high streets surveyed because the street has one of the highest spending quotient -- money spent on the street is high.

Certainly, as the report goes onto explain, high-value spending can occur in areas where big-ticket items are sold, like electronics, appliances etc, but many of India's popular micro-markets, that seem to be lucrative retailing spots, like Connaught Place, Lower Parel, Khan Market, Colaba Causeway, may not be places that have a high spending quotient because there aren't that many shops selling big-ticket items and because they offer a wider variety of stuff in wider price ranges for shoppers to eyeball.

Chairman and MD of Knight Frank India Shishir Baijal, said, 'Globally, cities are identified by their high streets, often one of the main attractions of the city, and the brands on these streets -- a barometer of the city's worth on a global platform.'

He feels that the traditional Indian high streets, that didn't make the red-letter list because a lack of amenities, will eventually get there 'as cities in India are modernising... and many high streets in the country reviving as facilities like access, parking, store visibility etc have improved. Our estimations say that the average per square meter revenues of high streets will be significantly higher than those of malls in FY 2023-24'.

As you go through this ranking of top ten, the omissions are glaring. Top shopping landmarks of our cities are missing, because even if a retail destination overflows with glass and chrome and fancy stuff to buy, if it does have basic stuff like parking or a decent restroom, it would not make the cut. Happy scrollling...

Average Rents on Indian high streets

Round up: Top 10 Indian high streets

Source: Knight Frank Research