DLF Plaza Tower Office for Rent, DLF Phase 1 Gurgaon

The DLF Plaza Tower office rent per sq ft runs Rs 100 to Rs 128 per sq ft a month on the listings found, for office space in DLF Phase 1 Gurgaon. The building is about 2.2 lakh sq ft over 12 floors, units found from about 3,588 sq ft up to about 16,500 sq ft, and the DLF Phase 1 Rapid Metro station is about a kilometre away.

Two things about that range are worth more than the range itself. The Rs 128 is bare shell — the dearest rent in the building also leaves the fit-out bill with you. And the landlord is DLF, which in this market is a more unusual fact than any number on this page.

An institutional landlord, which almost nothing else on this corridor has

Nearly every commercial building we have written up in Gurgaon is strata-owned. The tower was built by a developer, the floors were sold off to individual investors, and the person who signs your lease is one of those investors. That has three consequences tenants discover late.

Your terms depend on which floor you land on, because each owner negotiates their own. The rent range inside a single building can vary forty per cent for identical space, because some owners bought in 2009 and some in 2019. And when something breaks you are caught between a private landlord who wants it fixed cheaply and a facility manager appointed by an owners' association that answers to neither of you.

DLF manages this one itself and lists it on its own offices site, which means you can lease directly from DLF rather than from whoever bought the floor in 2009. Lease terms tend to be consistent floor to floor, availability is published rather than whispered between brokers, and the counterparty to your five-year commitment is a listed company whose accounts you can read before handing over eight months of rent as a deposit.

It cuts both ways, honestly. An institutional landlord wants a longer lock-in, hands you a standard lease it does not much want to amend, and will not do the small irregular things a private owner will — a rent-free fit-out month here, a clause struck there. If your negotiating strength is in the details, you will find less room here than across the road.

One check to make: confirm whether the specific floor you are shown is still DLF's, or has been sold on to an investor. The advantage above does not transfer with the title.

The rate, and why the most expensive unit is the raw one

The page previously showed Rs 125 to Rs 130. What the search found was Rs 128 on a bare-shell unit, Rs 125 described as premium space, and Rs 100. So the top of the old range was about right and the bottom was too high: the band is Rs 100 to Rs 128.

That inversion is worth pausing on. In a normal market a furnished unit costs Rs 15 to Rs 25 a foot more than raw space, because somebody has already spent the fit-out money. Here a bare shell is asking Rs 128 while another unit asks Rs 100. So the Rs 28 spread is not about finish — it is about which floor, which unit and which owner.

The practical instruction: do not compare the Rs 128 here against a furnished Rs 120 somewhere else and conclude this building is dearer by Rs 8. Add your fit-out to this side first. Gurgaon office fit-out at a reasonable standard runs Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500 a sq ft, which amortised over a five-year lease is another Rs 25 to Rs 42 a foot a month. On that arithmetic the Rs 128 bare shell is the most expensive space in the building by a wide margin, and the Rs 100 listing is where the conversation should start.

Where that sits, and what the kilometre costs

The distance to rail is about a kilometre, which puts this building in the middle of the set — closer than the Golf Course Extension towers at three and a half kilometres, further than Orchid Centre's two hundred metres or Salcon Platina's three hundred. In practice a kilometre is a ten-minute walk in winter and a short auto ride in June: a real difference from a station at the door, nothing like the drive the Extension corridors require.

The sharpest comparison in that table is Salcon Platina — the same Rs 100-125 band, a closer station, strata ownership. If your only criteria are rent per foot and minutes to rail, Salcon wins. If you would rather your landlord were a company whose accounts are filed publicly, this one does. That is the trade, stated plainly.

What the building is, and whether its numbers add up

About 2.2 lakh sq ft of Grade A office space over 12 floors. Divide it: that is a plate of roughly 18,300 sq ft, and the largest unit marketed — about 16,500 sq ft — fits comfortably inside that. Three published figures that agree with each other.

We check this on every building because most towers on this corridor advertise a total area, a floor count and a plate that cannot all be true at once, and the tenant who does the arithmetic before the site visit finds out which figure the marketing department wrote. Here they hold.

Unit sizes run from about 3,588 sq ft — an unfurnished plate that was listed — up to about 16,500 sq ft. Two hundred and twenty thousand square feet in one address is not merely a large number; it is choice inside a single negotiation. You can compare floors, orientation and ceiling height without restarting the search elsewhere, and a firm that takes 8,000 sq ft now and needs 16,000 in three years can plausibly stay at the same address. That is worth more than most tenants price into a first lease.

The rooftop club

DLF's own page for this building describes a rooftop club with a fitness centre and swimming pool, reserved for occupants. We flag the attribution deliberately: a pool on an office building is exactly the sort of claim that turns out to be residential boilerplate scraped onto a commercial listing, and we have found that error on other buildings in this batch. Here it comes from the landlord's own page rather than a portal, which is as good as a claim of this kind gets without standing on the roof.

Whether it is worth anything to you is a separate question. If your staff would use a gym and a pool at the office, it is a real differentiator on this road and worth a few rupees a foot. If they would not, you are paying a share of its running cost through the maintenance charge regardless — which is a reason to ask what the maintenance rate includes rather than a reason to admire the amenity.

Maintenance and the rest of the cost

No maintenance rate for this building surfaced, so ask for it in writing before you discuss rent. It is not a small line on this corridor: Orchid Centre on Golf Course Road charges about Rs 19 per sq ft a month and Paras Trinity about Rs 18. On a Rs 100 rent, a Rs 19 maintenance is a fifth again on top — and in a building with a rooftop pool and club to run, it would be optimistic to expect the low end of that spread.

Ask specifically what it covers: air conditioning in tenant hours, common-area power, the DG, water, security, lift AMC, property tax, and the club. Two buildings quoting the same rate can differ by Rs 6 a foot on what falls inside it. With an institutional landlord you are more likely to get a clear written answer than from a private owner, which is one of the practical advantages of the structure — so use it.

Plaza Tower vs Qutub Plaza

DLF has several buildings in Phase 1 with names that read alike, and DLF Qutub Plaza is the one that catches people. It is a separate building in the same phase, and it is also quoted at about Rs 125 per sq ft a month plus maintenance.

Which means a quote at Rs 125 for "DLF, Phase 1" could be either building, and they are not interchangeable — different plates, different available units, different fit. The fix is the same as everywhere in this market: confirm the building name on the draft lease deed and on the maintenance bill, not on the listing heading. A heading is written by whoever wants your call.

What these rents say about buying here

No sale ask for this building is published; the band of Rs 22,000 to Rs 28,000 a sq ft that circulated earlier has no listing behind it, and our sale page now values floors from these rents at about Rs 17,000 to Rs 25,600. Rents of Rs 100 to Rs 128 a month are Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,536 a sq ft a year; at 6 to 7 per cent gross, that is where the Rs 17,000 to Rs 25,600 comes from, so the test for any ask that does appear is simply whether it sits inside that band.

Now set that against Vatika Professional Point in Sector 66, a corridor out, where the one priced office on our sale page, let at Rs 57 a foot, asks Rs 11,400 per sq ft and rents run Rs 55 to Rs 80. About one and a half to two times the price per square foot here, for about the same multiple of rent.

The yields are comparable, and that is the useful finding rather than a coincidence: it means the DLF Phase 1 premium is charged in the entry ticket and not taken out of the return. You are not buying a worse yield to sit in a better address — you are buying a bigger cheque for a proportionally bigger rent. Whether that is the right trade depends on whether you would rather own Rs 2 crore of Phase 1 or Rs 1 crore of Sector 66, which is a question about the next ten years of those two roads, not about this year's arithmetic.

What to settle before signing

• Which building — Plaza Tower or Qutub Plaza — on the draft lease deed.
• The fit-out state of the unit being quoted, since the dearest rate here is bare shell.
• Carpet and super area both, in writing, on your unit.
• The maintenance rate and its inclusions, quoted separately from rent — and whether the club is inside it.
• Parking bays for your unit, written in.
• Escalation and lock-in — expect the lock-in to be longer here than with a private owner, and price that in rather than arguing it away.
• Whether the floor is DLF's or has been sold on to an investor.
• The occupation certificate and the dues position.

Our view

Worth it for the landlord as much as the address. The rate is fair for Phase 1 and the kilometre to rail is acceptable, but what distinguishes this building from the others on your shortlist is that you can read your landlord's accounts and the lease will look the same on the fourth floor as on the eleventh. For a firm that values predictability over squeezing the last five rupees a foot, that is the better trade.

Two numbers to handle carefully. Open at Rs 100, not at the Rs 125-130 this page used to print. And when you compare the Rs 128 unit against anything else, remember it is bare shell — add Rs 25 to Rs 42 a foot of amortised fit-out before deciding it is the premium option, because on that arithmetic it is not the premium option, it is simply the expensive one.

For comparisons: Salcon Platina on MG Road at the same Rs 100-125 with a metro interchange at 0.3 km, Veritas Tower at Rs 110-130 on Golf Course Road, and Paras Trinity at Rs 70-90 to see what leaving the rail corridor saves. The road pages are office space on Golf Course Road and office space for rent in DLF Cyber City, DLF's other Gurugram office estate.

Frequently asked questions

What is the office rent in DLF Plaza Tower Gurgaon?

Three rates turned up: Rs 128 per sq ft a month on a bare-shell unit, Rs 125 described as premium space, and Rs 100. So the evidenced band is Rs 100 to Rs 128 plus maintenance. Note which end is which — the Rs 128 is bare shell, meaning the dearest rent in the building also leaves the fit-out to you, while the Rs 100 listing is the one worth opening on.

Why is the bare-shell rate the highest one?

Because in a strata-influenced market the spread across a building is driven by which floor and which owner, not by fit-out. Normally a furnished unit costs Rs 15 to Rs 25 a foot more than raw space, so a bare shell at Rs 128 sitting alongside a Rs 100 listing tells you the Rs 28 gap is about the unit, not the finish. Practically: budget your fit-out separately and compare like with like before deciding the Rs 128 unit is the good one.

How far is the metro from DLF Plaza Tower Office for Rent, DLF Phase 1 Gurgaon?

About 1 km to the DLF Phase 1 Rapid Metro station. That is a short drive or a ten-minute walk rather than the two-hundred-metre walk that Orchid Centre offers on Golf Course Road, and it is far better than the 3.5 km at Paras Trinity on Golf Course Extension. It sits in the middle of the set.

Who is the landlord, and does it matter here?

DLF itself, which lists this building on its own offices site. That is unusual in this batch, where most buildings are strata-owned and your landlord is an individual investor. An institutional landlord means terms tend to be consistent floor to floor and availability is published rather than whispered — and it also means a longer lock-in and less room to rewrite clauses. Check whether the specific floor you are shown is still DLF's or has been sold on, because the advantage does not transfer.

Is this the same building as DLF Qutub Plaza?

No. Qutub Plaza is a separate DLF building in the same phase, and it is also quoted at about Rs 125 per sq ft a month plus maintenance — so a quote at Rs 125 could be either. DLF has several buildings in Phase 1 with names that read alike. Confirm the building on the draft lease deed rather than the listing heading.

How big are the units, and does the building's arithmetic add up?

About 2.2 lakh sq ft over 12 floors is a plate of roughly 18,300 sq ft, and the largest unit marketed — about 16,500 sq ft — fits inside that, which means the three published figures are consistent. Smaller units exist too: a 3,588 sq ft unfurnished floor plate was listed. Most buildings on this corridor publish an area, a floor count and a plate that cannot all be true at once, so it is worth saying when they can.

What do these rents imply about buying here instead?

No sale ask for this building is published; the band of Rs 22,000 to Rs 28,000 a sq ft that circulated earlier has no listing behind it, and our sale page now values floors from these rents at about Rs 17,000 to Rs 25,600. Rents of Rs 100 to Rs 128 a month are Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,536 a sq ft a year, which is what a buyer wanting 6 to 7 per cent gross would pay that band for. Set that against Vatika Professional Point in Sector 66, where the one priced office on our sale page, let at Rs 57 a month, asks Rs 11,400 a foot, a 6.0 per cent gross return, and rents run Rs 55 to Rs 80: about one and a half to two times the price per foot here for about the same multiple of rent. The yields are comparable, which is the useful finding — the DLF Phase 1 premium is charged in the entry ticket, not taken out of the return.