DLF South Point Mall Retail Shop for Rent, Golf Course Road

One retail unit in DLF South Point Mall is on the market at Rs 5 lakh a month. It is a ground-floor, double-height shop with a super area of 405 sq ft and a carpet area of 270 sq ft. Do the division, because nobody else does:

Rs 1,235 per sq ft a month is not a Gurugram retail rate. It is close to the top of Indian high-street retail. This page previously carried a band of Rs 90 to Rs 180 per sq ft and "shops from Rs 2 lakh a month", and whatever those figures describe, it is not this unit — they are out by a factor of seven to fourteen against the one rate that can actually be divided from a real listing.

The loading, which is half the story

405 sq ft of super area gives 270 sq ft of carpet. That is a loading of 50 per cent — carpet is two-thirds of what you pay for. A third of your rent buys corridors, atrium, lifts, washrooms and plant.

That is normal for a mall and it is why the two numbers in the table differ so much. It is also the single most common way a retail tenant miscalculates their business plan: they model revenue per square foot of selling space and rent per square foot of super area, and the two are not the same denominator. Run your sales forecast against the 270, and your rent against the 405.

Ask for both figures in writing, with the loading stated, before you model anything at all.

Where this sits in the Gurugram retail range

Gurugram retail spans roughly seventeen times from one end of that list to the other, and every rate on it is real. What separates them is not the city, it is the specific unit: the road, the floor, the frontage, the height and whether the shutter is on a route people already walk.

So treat any number quoted for "retail in Gurugram", including any band on this page, as meaningless until it is attached to a floor and a frontage. It is the reason a band of Rs 90 to Rs 180 could be printed about this mall without anybody noticing it was describing a different product.

What you are paying Rs 5 lakh a month for

South Point Mall sits on Golf Course Road at Sector 53, immediately beside DLF Phase 5 and Sectors 55 and 56 — the densest concentration of high-income households in Gurugram, and a corporate catchment that arrives on weekdays as well as weekends. Units run from about 600 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft, with round-the-clock power backup and security.

A ground-floor double-height unit in that setting is the most contested retail product in the city. Double height means a mezzanine or a display volume a single-storey shutter cannot offer, which is why brands pay for it — and it means your 270 sq ft of carpet can trade like more.

Whether Rs 5 lakh a month works is arithmetic you can do before you ever visit. At that rent you need roughly Rs 60 lakh a year in rent alone; on a typical retail rule of thumb where rent should sit near a tenth of turnover, that implies a business turning over Rs 6 crore a year out of 270 sq ft of selling space. That is about Rs 2.2 lakh per carpet square foot per year, and only a handful of categories — jewellery, high-value accessories, premium eyewear, some food formats — reach it. If your category does not, no amount of footfall will fix the rent.

Before you sign

1. Carpet and super, in writing, with the loading stated. Model revenue on carpet, rent on super.
2. Gross or net. Mall common-area maintenance is high and is usually on top. Get the rate and last year's actual against budget.
3. The marketing levy, if the mall runs one, and what it has bought.
4. The specific frontage. Walk past your shutter at 7pm on a Saturday and count. Then do it at 11am on a Tuesday, because a corporate catchment shops on weekdays too.
5. Escalation and lock-in, and which way each cuts. At this rent a five-year lock-in is a Rs 3 crore commitment.

Frequently asked questions

What is the shop rent in DLF South Point Mall?

One documented listing is a ground-floor, double-height unit at Rs 5 lakh a month with a super area of 405 sq ft and a carpet area of 270 sq ft. That is about Rs 1,235 per sq ft a month on super area and about Rs 1,852 per sq ft on carpet. Units in the mall run from about 600 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft, and rates vary enormously by floor and frontage, so a single figure cannot describe the whole mall.

Why is Rs 1,235 per sq ft so far above other Gurugram retail rates?

Because it is a different product, not a different city. A large anchor unit in central Gurugram runs about Rs 150 per sq ft a month, a small unit in a Golf Course Road mall about Rs 122, a ground-floor shop on Golf Course Extension Road is asked at about Rs 90, and a smaller unit in the same central complex about Rs 73. Gurugram retail spans roughly seventeen times across those, and what separates them is the road, the floor, the frontage and the height — not the market.

What is the carpet area against the super area here?

On the documented unit, 270 sq ft of carpet against 405 sq ft of super — a loading of 50 per cent, so carpet is two-thirds of what you pay for. A third of the rent buys corridors, atrium, lifts, washrooms and plant. Model your sales forecast against the 270 and your rent against the 405, because using one denominator for both is the most common way a retail business plan goes wrong.

What turnover would justify Rs 5 lakh a month?

Rent alone is about Rs 60 lakh a year. On the common retail rule of thumb that rent should sit near a tenth of turnover, that implies roughly Rs 6 crore a year from 270 sq ft of selling space — about Rs 2.2 lakh per carpet square foot per year. Only a handful of categories reach that: jewellery, high-value accessories, premium eyewear and some food formats. If yours does not, footfall will not fix it.

What sizes are available, and where is the mall?

Units run from about 600 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft. The mall is on Golf Course Road at Sector 53, immediately beside DLF Phase 5 and Sectors 55 and 56 — the densest concentration of high-income households in Gurugram, with a corporate catchment that arrives on weekdays as well as weekends. It offers round-the-clock power backup and security.

What should I settle before signing?

Carpet and super area in writing with the loading stated. Whether the rent is gross or net, with the maintenance rate and last year's actual against budget. The marketing levy, if there is one, and what it has bought. The specific frontage, tested by walking past your own shutter at 7pm on a Saturday and again at 11am on a Tuesday. And the escalation and lock-in, because at this rent a five-year lock-in is a commitment of around Rs 3 crore.

Our view

This is the top of the Gurugram retail market and the rate is honest about that — Rs 1,235 per sq ft a month on super area, Rs 1,852 on carpet, in the best catchment in the city. What was not honest was the band this page used to carry, which was out by a factor of seven or more and would have had a prospective tenant walk into a negotiation with the wrong number in their head.

Our advice is unglamorous: do the turnover arithmetic before you see the unit. If Rs 2.2 lakh of annual sales per carpet square foot is not achievable in your category, the address is irrelevant — and if it is, this is one of the few places in Gurugram where the rent is defensible.

In short: Rs 5 lakh a month for 405 sq ft of super and 270 of carpet — about Rs 1,235 per sq ft, roughly ten times what a small unit in a neighbouring Golf Course Road mall costs, and a different product entirely.

For a small unit on the same road at a tenth of the rate, see Central Plaza Mall in Sector 53. For an anchor-sized unit in central Gurugram, the M2K anchor shop in Sector 51, and for a mall-format asset with a multiplex anchor, Elan Epic in Sector 70.