Breaking News:GCC leases are surging and evolving in India, keeping top law firms busy– What Just Happened

As foreign companies commit to 15-30 year tenures and build million-square-foot facilities in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Chennai, leading law firms such as Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co, JSA Advocates & Solicitors and Nishith Desai Associates are increasingly being drawn into these transactions.

What were once routine commercial leases are now turning into M&A-style mandates involving detailed land and regulatory due diligence, construction and zoning approvals and long-term risk allocation.

There is a clear rise in the number, size and tenure of GCC-led built-to-suit and large office leasing transactions in India, according to Cyril Shroff, managing partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

“GCCs are no longer back-office operations but long-term strategic hubs for technology and global operations,” Shroff said. “As a result, real estate commitments are larger, lease tenures are longer, and campus developments are more customised and future-ready. This has fundamentally changed the nature of legal work in this space.”

The firm advised GCC clients on leasing more than 5 million square feet in the past year alone. Its recent mandates include advising JPMorgan on what is being described as Asia’s largest GCC lease, a 1.3-million-sq-ft built-to-suit campus in Mumbai’s Powai.

Firms such as Nishith Desai Associates now advise GCC clients through the entire lifecycle of a transaction, from structuring the India entity from a legal, tax and regulatory perspective to setting up operations.

“There has been a clear increase in the scale, duration and strategic importance of GCC-driven office and campus transactions in India,” said Aaron Kamath, lead for technology, digital and commercial law practice at Nishith Desai Associates. “Leases of 10-20 years and large integrated campuses are becoming common, shifting legal work from standard leasing to complex, project-style advisory.”

Strategic hubs

GCCs are offices set up by multinational companies in India to handle functions such as technology, finance, research, data, analytics and customer operations. India is now home to more than 1,800 GCCs, which generated revenue of $64.6 billion in 2024, a figure projected by Nasscom to cross $110 billion by 2030.

These centres, once focused on backoffice processing, are now strategic hubs for engineering, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, financial services and global operations, driving a sharp rise in legal complexity.

Mint emailed queries to the GCCs of companies including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Amazon India, Citi and Walmart, but responses were awaited till press time.

Law firm involvement now begins well before a lease is signed. Advisers help multinational clients structure their India presence, plan inter-company funding under foreign exchange and tax rules, assess state-level incentives and map labour and regulatory compliance. This is followed by site selection, title and zoning checks and negotiation of long-tenure leases or development agreements.

“It is important to understand why a company is setting up a GCC in India and what its long-term needs are,” said Harsh Parikh, partner at Khaitan & Co, who leads the firm’s real estate practice.

The firm recently advised Brookfield on its built-to-suit transaction with JPMorgan in Mumbai and has worked on several large GCC mandates for global banks and technology companies.

A key part of the mandate is intensive land and regulatory due diligence. Lawyers conduct extended title searches, examine past ownership and litigation, verify zoning and land-use permissions and review environmental and municipal approvals to ensure long-term security of possession. In built-to-suit projects, construction risk is managed through milestone-linked delivery schedules, penalties for delay, defect liability and change-in-law protection.

Right real estate partner

“Legal advice is crucial in assessing a developer’s financial stability, scalability, ongoing litigation, environmental and town planning compliances, and the profile of existing occupiers—factors that matter as much as cost and availability,” said Vinod Mannattil, partner and general counsel at Gloplax, an advisory and enablement firm for GCCs. “Engaging a trusted legal partner early helps identify risks, anticipate disputes and support informed selection of the right real estate partner.”

According to Vivek K. Chandy, joint managing partner at JSA Advocates & Solicitors, there is no room for poor construction quality, as even design and specification choices can significantly affect costs and risk.

“The cost of constructing a building can vary by as much as 300%, with the façade alone accounting for a large part of the variation. It is therefore critical that specifications are detailed and that lessees have inspection rights at every stage so that global quality standards are met,” he said.

JSA has advised on several large GCC and single-tenant campus transactions, including an Australian multinational bank leasing about 1 million sq. ft from Embassy, a 500,000 sq. ft lease for Honeywell, Vanguard’s GCC in Hyderabad, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s India centre, and large mandates for Deloitte across key markets.

Negotiations now go far beyond rent and lock-in. Companies focus on renewal and exit rights, expansion and downsizing options, limits on rent escalation, delivery timelines, change-in-law protection, construction quality, defect liability, step-in rights, compliance with global anti-bribery and ESG norms, and faster dispute resolution.

“Twenty-five years ago, leases were 20–25 pages. Today, they easily run into more than 100 pages, with detailed technical schedules and annexures,” Chandy added.

The surge in legal complexity mirrors the changing role of GCCs themselves.

GCCs—run by companies such as Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Boeing and Walmart—now employ about 1.35 million people across India, with Bengaluru and Hyderabad the largest hubs.

Job disruption

Mint reported earlier that while these centres have emerged as major recruiters amid a slowdown at IT services firms, generative AI and automation are beginning to disrupt hiring, with some GCCs indicating that headcount growth in certain roles could slow as AI-driven productivity rises.

According to Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm, the GCC workforce has grown 48% to a projected 1.9 million from 1.3 million over five years. After adding about 150,000 employees in 2025, GCCs could add about 200,000 more in 2026, although this may slow to 70,000-80,000 if offshoring conditions weaken in key markets such as the US.

According to Savills India’s report titled Global Capability Centres: Enabling India’s Strategic Advantage, GCCs leased about 112 million sq. ft from 2020 to 2024 and could absorb another 180 million sq. ft by 2030. In 2024 alone, GCCs accounted for 44% of India’s total office leasing, with Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune together contributing 70% of GCC absorption during 2020-24.

SPAG FINN Partners’ whitepaper The Road Ahead for GCCs in India: The Glocal Approach notes that India remains the world’s largest and most mature GCC hub, supported by a 5.4-million-strong technology workforce and rapid adoption of artificial intelligence, with nearly 90% of centres now operating as multi-functional, innovation-led hubs.