pune around 7400 leases spanning around 90 million square feet will come up for renewal this year in six major cities including mumbai and pune real estate observer anarock stated in its report on wednesday while projecting the lease rents to slightly rise in some cities next year due to various factors such as disruptions in supplythe leases are up for renewal in six cities pune mumbai bengaluru gurgaon noida and chennai the highest share of these 7400 expired or expiring leases are in mumbai 44 with pune coming in second with 17 real estate observers said these two cities being among the most affected due to the covid19 pandemic would also serve as a bellwether for the commercial real estate market in the years to comethe worry is about a market like mumbai where the commercial spaces are largely being taken up by financial institutions or boutique startups over time their requirement of spaces will be nowhere near that of it or ites firms said a real estate observer from the regiondespite the high volume of leases up for renewal anarock said a slight upward trajectory in the rents might occur in the it and itesheavy cities like pune and bengaluru due to various factorsthe large it companies had hired very well in the last fiscal and they have good hiring plans in the ongoing fiscal too these companies are moving towards a hybrid system of working over the coming year as vaccinations increase these are the companies where managementlevel staff would work from office or home but entrylevel staff may have to travel to office regularly over the next year these firms would also start to dedensify the offices that they have now besides there has been a disruption in the supply of commercial real estate due to the slowing down of construction activity due to the lockdown and shortage of raw material that is why we have projected that lease rents may rise in some cities where the spaces are predominantly taken up by it or ites firms said prashant thakur head of research at anarockthe rise is expected to be around 510 in the second half of 2022 he added