But Nariman Point is no more the preferred location. Companies are willing to set up offices in suburbs as far as Andheri. Cushman and Wakefield director (India) Ashish Welkar informed that this year has seen a renewed activity in leased commercial property. He predicts that there would be about 10 per cent increase in the commercial property rates as far as lease is concerned in the coming year.

A survey conducted earlier by the company said that the activity was particularly strong in Prabhadevi and Worli.

The report said that a large number of corporates had committed to some of the prime buildings in these areas, taking advantage of the low rents.

Welkar added that this was because the service sector had to be in touch with the clients and consumers and hence have very lately shifted to Central Mumbai.

According to Rajesh Kothari of Anurag Estate Agency at Haji Ali, not only have inquiries for office space doubled in the last one month, prices too have shot up by 10 to 15 per cent with very little office space available between Nariman Point and Haji Ali.

While the rate for leased commercial property at Nariman Point is between Rs 80 and Rs 120 per sq ft, the rates at Prabhadevi and Worli are in the region of Rs 60 to Rs 100. Also companies are very particular about the parking space, which commercial properties at Nariman Point hardly offer. Hence offices in Bandra-Kurla complex and mills like Pheonix are the obvious choice, according to owner of Ten Estate Agency at Five Gardens, Matunga, Nadir Mistry.

"More than 60 per cent of the companies wanting to set up offices prefer it on lease and that too in new buildings with good parking," he informed, adding that walk-in offices are the latest fad. Also, since large spaces are not available in the city, these companies are heading north, he added.

Bandra-Kurla and Andheri East are said to be offering good office space at relatively less rates. Colliers Jardine chief executive officer Akshaya Kumar added that companies are forced to move north as Nariman Point had reached a saturation point. And with majority of the companies going in for leased offices the closest one can get to the city is at Mahalakshmi. Since Bandra-Kurla and Andheri offer ready space, companies are moving there.

Majority of the ownership offices are being bought out by IT companies.The demand for commercial property is likely to increase once the insurance sector is opened up to private companies, added Mr Cherag Ramkrishnan of Ramon Property Consultants at Colaba. He added that once this happens, there will be demand for big offices spaces like 10,000 and 20,000 sq ft. He reasoned that apart from the cost factor, companies were moving north as the work force resides in the suburbs.

With majority of the offices going for premises on lease, Cushman and Wakefield has also diversified into facility management which calls for maintaining the office premises and also focussing on environmental health and safety concerns, computer applications and real estate issues.

The emerging business trends are impacting the success of facility management, remarked Mr Ashpreet Chaudhary, corporate services with Cushman and Wakefield. He added that a large number of foreign companies prefer leased office premises with rollback options. The company recently set up the Indian headquarters for Cisco systems in Bangalore. The assests department set up to look into project management is presently working with Enron.