India, April 3 -- Intuitively, most wrote off physical retail, or brick-n-mortar commercial spaces in this age of online commerce. The wars, geopolitics, trade and tariff battles, and volatility enhance the desire to write such obits. Yet, the numbers defy imaginations, and offer a counterintuitive narrative. CBRE stated that the retail real estate market witnessed a record nearly nine million sq ft absorption in 2025, nearly half of it coming in as new supply. More than two million sq ft of new supply was operational in the second half of 2025. JLL stated that gross leasing volume hit 12.5 million sq ft in the top seven cities, the highest in three years.

Physical stores, or malls, where footfalls fell, are back with a vengeance. Indeed...