Food and entertainment take 32% of Indian mall leasing as landlords chase longer visits
Anarock Group data shows F&B and entertainment accounted for 32% of mall leasing in H1 2026, up from 20% in 2020. Entertainment nearly doubled its share to 17%, while department stores and hypermarkets fell to 4%, underscoring a shift toward experience-led mall mixes.
What happened
Anarock Group · Indian malls are shifting leasing toward food, entertainment and experiential formats to raise footfall and dwell time. F&B and entertainment
Key facts
- F&B and entertainment accounted for 32% of mall leasing space in H1 2026, versus 20% in 2020
- Entertainment share rose from 8% in 2020 to 17% in H1 2026
- F&B share rose from 12% in 2020 to 15% in H1 2026
- Apparel accounted for 33% of leasing space in H1 2026 versus 35% in 2020
- Department store and hypermarket share fell from 14% to 4%
- LuLu's F&B allocation grew from about 10% in 2013 to 28%; it operates nine malls totaling about 7.5 million sq ft and is building five more
- PVR INOX recorded about 150 million admissions in FY26
- India has about 650 operational malls; 20-22% of malls built in 2005-2015 later shut, repositioned or converted
Why this matters
Prioritize partnerships or acquisitions in entertainment, dining platforms and mall-services businesses that can create scalable experiential ecosystems for retail landlords.
What to watch
- Entertainment leasing share rising above 20% or F&B plus entertainment exceeding 35% of new leasing.
- Mall dwell time, evening footfall and weekend parking utilization increasing faster than total visitor counts.
- Lease renewals and rent spreads for adjacent fashion, beauty and youth-oriented brands improving after entertainment openings.
- Closure rates, discounting and delayed openings among restaurant, cinema and family-entertainment tenants.
- Conversion of large-format department-store and hypermarket spaces into multiplex, gaming, fitness, food-hall or event concepts.
- Consumer discretionary spending, food inflation, multiplex admissions and household credit stress in major mall cities.
- Prioritize restaurant, cinema, family-entertainment and social-gaming clusters near transit, parking and late-night access points.
- Reconfigure former department-store or hypermarket boxes into divisible leisure-led formats with multiple entrances and flexible event space.
- Tie leases to sales, footfall and operating-hour commitments rather than relying solely on fixed rent escalations.
- Build tenant-mix analytics around cross-shopping uplift: measure whether entertainment visits convert into fashion, beauty, grocery and specialty sales.
- Increase investment in wayfinding, security, parking, HVAC and extended-hours operations, since experience-led traffic concentrates in evenings and weekends.
- Limit concentration risk by avoiding excessive exposure to one cinema chain, restaurant cuisine, gaming format or franchise group.