Asia Pacific is becoming a growth epicenter for global location strategies, driven by its expanding role as a supply chain hub, a source of skilled talent, and India in particular as a catalyst for AI-led workforce transformation and energy-security oriented real estate planning.

Within APAC, especially India, megatrends are reshaping real estate strategy, with India emerging as a major AI hub due to its digital ecosystem, abundant talent, and strong government support.

Green building and retrofitting are central to investment decisions, as nearly two-thirds of India’s Grade A office stock is green-certified and more than 420 million square feet of older Grade A space identified for retrofitting, valued at over $5 billion.

Climate risks such as heatwaves and urban flooding are pushing occupiers toward resilient, sustainability-led workplaces and greater climate-tech adoption, while evolving trade patterns push firms to expand into emerging APAC markets.

A global framework identifies AI, demographic shifts, energy security, climate risks, and changing trade dynamics as megatrends redefining corporate real estate, location planning, investments, and talent strategies.

Demographics bolster India as a long-term office demand driver, with over 1.4 billion people, a young median age around 29, and a yearly influx of 2–3 million STEM graduates, accounting for roughly a third of the global skilled talent pool.

India’s AI market is projected to surge from just over $9 billion to well beyond $500 billion as AI, ML, cloud tech, and digitalisation accelerate, backed by large language models and government initiatives, attracting global firms.