DLF City Court Office for Sale, Sikanderpur Gurgaon

Office space for sale in DLF City Court is asked at anywhere between Rs 12,000 and Rs 34,400 per sq ft. Office space for rent in the same building goes at Rs 60 to Rs 65 per sq ft a month. Put those two facts side by side and most of the asking prices in this building stop making sense — which is the single most useful thing anybody can tell you before you buy here.

The arithmetic, done once

A commercial property is worth its rent divided by the yield a buyer requires. Here is what each asking price implies, using the building's own published rents:

Commercial property in India does not normally yield 2 percent. Delhi NCR yields roughly 6 to 10 per cent, and the most compressed districts in the region — Cyber City and Aerocity — still manage 5 to 6. A 2.1 per cent yield is not a tight market. It is a price that has lost contact with the income underneath it.

Only the Rs 12,000 unit produces a number a buyer could defend. Everything above it needs the rent to be somewhere it demonstrably is not — unless the specific unit has a lease that the building's general rents do not describe, which is exactly the thing to go and check.

When a high price can be right

Be fair to the Rs 34,400. That quote is for a 1,111 sq ft unit described as pre-leased and MG Road facing, and those two words can genuinely carry a price this building's average cannot. Frontage on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road is retail frontage, and retail frontage on that road lets for multiples of back-office rent.

So the question is not whether Rs 34,400 is possible. It is what rent the unit is actually earning:

• For Rs 34,400 to yield 7 per cent, the unit must be letting at about Rs 201 per sq ft a month.
• For it to yield 5 per cent — the floor for a prime Delhi NCR asset — it must be letting at about Rs 143.
• At the building's ordinary Rs 60 to Rs 65, it yields about 2.2 per cent.

That is not a judgement, it is a division. Ask for the lease deed, the tenant's name, the remaining term, the escalation clause and the bank statement showing the rent arriving. If the rent is Rs 200, the price is arguable. If the rent is Rs 65, the price is wrong by a factor of three, and no amount of MG Road in the description changes it.

Why one building holds a threefold price spread

DLF City Court is a DLF commercial complex at Sector 24 on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, at Sikanderpur. Three towers, two basements plus ground plus ten floors, roughly two acres, and about 150,000 sq ft built up. The number that explains everything is the last one: around 222 separate office and retail units in that 150,000 sq ft — an average of under 700 sq ft each.

This is a strata building, built to be sold in small pieces to individual owners. That has two consequences a buyer should hold onto:

1. You can actually buy here. Most genuinely prime Gurugram addresses cannot be bought in small lots at all — the institutional districts are leasing markets where a small buyer has no entry. City Court is one of the few MG Road addresses where a 500 or 1,000 sq ft purchase is a real transaction.
2. Position inside the building is the whole valuation. With 222 units there is no such thing as "the price in DLF City Court". Ground floor with road frontage, a mid-level suite off a lift lobby and a tenth-floor back office are three different assets with one address, and the threefold spread in the asking prices is exactly that.

The published unit sizes run from about 300 sq ft through 467, 539 and 860 sq ft to a 2,500 sq ft furnished floor plate. Ask for the floor, the unit number and the frontage before you accept any comparable at all.

What the location is genuinely worth

The connectivity here is the best in Gurugram and it is not close. Sikanderpur is where the yellow line meets the rapid metro, so the building sits on the city's only genuine interchange. MG Road metro is on the same stretch. For a small firm whose staff commute by metro, this is the address, and it is why the rents hold at Rs 60 to Rs 65 in a building whose common specification is unremarkable.

Read across the corridor: a building off NH-8 lets at about Rs 70 per sq ft a month with a 23,333 sq ft floor plate and no metro at the door. A Sector 58 tower on the Golf Course Extension corridor lets at around Rs 85. City Court's Rs 60 to Rs 65 is not a premium for the interchange — it is a discount for small, dated, strata-owned suites, partly offset by the metro.

DLF City Court is not DLF Centre Court

Two DLF commercial buildings, two very similar names, and they are constantly confused. DLF City Court is this building: a strata complex of small units on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road at Sikanderpur. DLF Centre Court is a different asset entirely — twin towers of about 2.87 lakh sq ft on Golf Course Road at Sector 42, LEED Platinum certified, and held in DLF's own leasing portfolio rather than sold off in 700 sq ft lots.

The distinction matters because their numbers have nothing to do with each other. A Centre Court comparable applied to a City Court unit, or the reverse, will be wrong by a wide margin in whichever direction it is used. Check the road name on every quotation you receive: Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road is this building, Golf Course Road is the other one.

One small thing to settle on the paperwork: the building's address is recorded variously as Sector 24, Sector 26, Nathupur and Sikanderpur Ghosi. They describe the same place, but take the description from the conveyance rather than from a listing.

What to establish before you pay

1. The actual rent on the actual unit — lease deed and bank statement, not an agent's estimate.
2. Floor, unit number and frontage. A comparable from a different position in this building is not a comparable.
3. The maintenance charge per sq ft and who sets it. In a 222-unit strata building the association matters more than the developer.
4. What a furnished quote includes. The Rs 12,000 unit is described as fully furnished; establish whether the fit-out has value to your tenant or is coming out at the first re-letting.
5. Whether the tenancy survives the sale. On a pre-leased purchase the lease is the asset and its remaining term is its life.

Frequently asked questions

What does office space cost in DLF City Court?

Asking prices run from about Rs 12,000 to Rs 34,400 per sq ft. A 2,500 sq ft fully furnished unit near Sikanderpur metro is quoted at about Rs 12,000, retail-cum-office space at about Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000, and a 1,111 sq ft pre-leased unit with MG Road frontage at Rs 34,400. That is a threefold spread in one building, and it is explained by position rather than by the market moving.

What is the rent in DLF City Court, and what yield does it give?

Furnished office space in the building is quoted at about Rs 60 to Rs 65 per sq ft a month. Against the asking prices that gives roughly 2.1 per cent at Rs 34,400, 2.9 per cent at Rs 25,000 and 6.0 per cent at Rs 12,000. Delhi NCR commercial property generally yields 6 to 10 per cent and even the most compressed prime districts hold 5 to 6, so only the lowest of those asking prices produces a defensible number.

Could the Rs 34,400 price ever be justified?

Only if that specific unit earns far more than the building's ordinary rent. It is described as pre-leased with MG Road frontage, and road frontage genuinely lets for multiples of back-office rent. But the maths is fixed: Rs 34,400 needs about Rs 201 per sq ft a month to yield 7 per cent, and about Rs 143 to yield 5. Ask for the lease deed and a bank statement showing the rent arriving. If it is letting at Rs 65, the price is out by roughly three times.

Why is the price so different from one unit to the next?

By much more than most buyers expect. There are around 222 separate office and retail units inside about 150,000 sq ft, averaging under 700 sq ft each. In a strata building of that kind there is no single price — ground floor with frontage, a mid-level suite and a high back office are three different assets sharing one address. Always take the floor, the unit number and the frontage before you accept a comparable.

Is DLF City Court a good place to buy a small office?

It is one of the few genuinely central Gurugram addresses where a small purchase is even possible. Sikanderpur is the city's only real metro interchange, where the yellow line meets the rapid metro, and the building was built to be sold in small lots. The caution is entirely about price: buy on the rent the unit actually earns, not on the address, and the address will do its work.

DLF City Court vs DLF Centre Court: what is the difference?

No, and the two are routinely mixed up. DLF City Court is this building, a strata complex of around 222 small units on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road at Sikanderpur. DLF Centre Court is twin towers of about 2.87 lakh sq ft on Golf Course Road at Sector 42, LEED Platinum certified and held in DLF's own leasing portfolio. Their prices and rents have nothing to do with each other, so check the road name on any quotation before you treat it as a comparable.

Where exactly is the building?

On Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road at Sikanderpur, Gurugram. The address appears on the records as Sector 24, Sector 26, Nathupur and Sikanderpur Ghosi in different places — all describing the same location. Take the legal description from the conveyance rather than from any listing.