by THO
With the Noida International Airport expected to be operational by April 2025 and several corporates opening up offices in Noida, not to mention hundreds of homebuyers settling down in the new housing hubs coming up along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway and Greater Noida West, restaurant brands popular in Noida and Delhi are cashing in on the opportunity by expanding to multiple locations to cater to the taste buds of the growing population.
Noida’s homegrown brands, such as Desi Vibes, which opened shop in the centrally located Sector 18 market 20 years ago, are now expanding to Sector 75 and Greater Noida West. That’s not all. Last year, Noida saw the opening of a restaurant called Chica Loca at Gulshan One 29 in Sector 129 by Bollywood star Sunny Leone with Sahil Baweja of Singing Bowls Hospitality. Virat Kohli’s One8 Commune also opened in Noida’s Sector 94.
Several new spots offering various eating-out options have opened at the commercial complexes in Sectors along the expressway, such as Sectors 92, 142, 137, 129, and 104 in Noida and new malls in Greater Noida West’s Sector 4.
Real estate experts say that Noida’s food scene is looking up primarily for three reasons: residential projects delivered after a hiatus of 10 to 12 years and several corporates setting up shop in the micro market. Restauranters are trying to take advantage of the comparatively low rentals and more extensive floor space availability in newly built commercial and retail buildings, offering adequate parking space and facilities. They aim to capture the market before the new airport leads to rents hitting the roof.
Developers offering ‘bouquet deals’, spending on capex to encourage restaurant brands to expand into multiple locations
There’s also a new trend wherein developers offer incentives to popular retail brands to encourage them to set up branches in their new complexes. This could be in the form of capex (capital expenditure) or even a ‘bouquet’ deal to open a restaurant in multiple properties launched by the developer.
Restaurants cater to homebuyers settling down in new housing hubs
According to Manish Aggarwal, senior managing director at JLL India Leasing, Capital Markets, Strategic Consulting, and Sales, several food and beverage brands are setting up branches in different sectors of Noida due to the increase in habitation.
Also Read: Why real estate developers are launching a flurry of ₹5 crore-plus luxury apartments in Noida
“Habitation has increased manifold in these micro-markets as several corporates have set up offices in Noida. Lower rentals and the promise of assured footfalls drive these well-known food and beverage brands to set up shop in emerging markets such as Sectors 137 and 150 along the Noida Expressway, in Sector 75 and Greater Noida West. With the Noida International Airport expected to become operational next year, this activity is bound to increase,” he said.
The food licensing department has also increased the number of new licenses it has issued for medium—to large-sized restaurants in the last four years. In 2021, around 2000 licences were issued. This increased to around 2200 licenses in 2022, 3100 in 2023, and 2700 until November.
“The increase in the number of food licenses from 400 to more than 2200 now shows almost fivefold growth in the Noida market, which is perhaps one of the fastest-growing markets in terms of restaurants in India,” said Varun Khera, president of the National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), Noida chapter.
Also, with the Noida International Airport coming up, he said everyone from Delhi, Gurugram, and even central Noida wants a piece of the Noida restaurant scene.
“With several new housing hubs mushrooming in Noida, Greater Noida, not to mention the corporates that have opened up offices along the Noida Expressway, these new markets offer immense potential to restaurateurs looking to open businesses in these areas to cater to a new customer base. As more of these corporate professionals settle in these twin cities, new opportunities are getting created for restaurateurs,” he said.
Khera has been running a fine-dining restaurant, Desi Vibes, and a cafe, Kaffiaa, in the Sector 18 market for almost two decades, said that Noida and Greater Noida also offer lower rentals than Delhi and Gurugram.
Asked if sops such as capex or bouquet deals offered by developers to restaurants are a key deciding factor in opening multiple outlets, he argues that a restauranteur from Delhi may not enter the Greater Noida market if he is not confident about the footfalls. Ultimately, it concerns demand, supply, and the assured footfalls from a particular micro market.
He agrees that while a few developers may offer support in terms of civil or brickwork to help a restaurant establish itself, it often gets factored into the rentals. Also, a restauranteur may not want to open multiple outlets with the same developer, making the brand ‘generic’. Also, every retail destination or mall has a different catchment that needs to be catered to.
To test the demand in new localities, Khera’s company started with its smaller brand K se Kulcha, in markets such as Haldwani, Kanpur, Lucknow, Pune, and Bengaluru. If the response is good, it intends to scale up with the larger brand Desi Vibes. With the focus now moving to the Yamuna Expressway, the company has also recently signed up with an outlet in Agra, a relatively virgin market when it comes to restaurants, and will launch Desi Vibes there.
Quality real estate pushing demand for fancy dining options
Deepak Kapoor, director of Gulshan Homz, which has a commercial property along the Expressway in Sector 129 called Gulshan129, said that Noida had only one commercial district in Sector 18 for a long time. To meet the growing population’s demand settling in new sectors, realtors are developing modern infrastructure to cater to these restaurant brands wanting to expand to multiple locations.
“Gone are the days when the focus was on centralisation of restaurants. People would flock to Connaught Place in Delhi or Sector 18 in Noida because the restaurant only had one outlet. With traffic increasing multifold, people are looking at convenience. They want the brand to walk to their doorstep literally, and the proliferation of malls across NCR has led to this phenomenon. A sizeable population has settled into these new sectors, and restaurant owners are trying to cash in on the demand. They are assured of adequate footfalls as the people residing in that catchment have the propensity to spend,” he explained.
He agreed that in some cases, the developer may even decide to bear the capex if he wishes to bring a well-known brand to a new property to attract consumers.
Samir Srivastava, director of leasing Bhutani Group, which has commercial projects located in prime sectors Sector 90, Sector 140 A, Sector 133, Sector 150 and Sector 127, believes that a developer may choose to invest in capex only if the property is far off. Having said that, a few developers may try to rationalise rentals by 12 to 15% for brands wanting to expand to newer locations rather than spend on capex.
He believes that offering a discount may not always help; ultimately, it is the location that ensures the longevity of the brand and the customers it is catering to.
“We also want restaurant brands to set up shop in our other properties for which we have offered bouquet deals under which they get a rental benefit. The demand for established restaurant brands is rising in Noida because there are enough developers launching quality luxury projects, which was not the case earlier. The buyer that invests in these premium properties also has the disposable income to spend. Besides, several corporate campuses such as Infosys and HCL present along the expressway have all helped bring in the desired footfalls. The airport is also expected to have a cascading effect,” he added.
