Real estate players see opportunity in the draft e-commerce policy

More than online marketplaces and digital commerce, the draft e-commerce policy issued last week might help the real estate sector.

With the insistence on data centres to be onshore, entities in real estate believe there is going to be a rise in demand for specialised Grade-A commercial spaces to set these up. Currently, data centres in India occupy around 12 million sq ft in space, growing at a compounded annual rate of 20 per cent.

The tagline of the draft report is ‘India’s data for India’s development’. The policy states a time-frame would be put in place for transition to data storage within the country, with three years to allow industry to adjust to the requirement.