Apple expands in India with new 10-year office lease in Bengaluru

Apple has agreed a $300,000 monthly lease for more than three floors of a new building in Minsk Square, in Bengaluru's business distract, on condition no competitors get space there.

Apple has previously leased over 40,000 square feet of office space in Bengaluru, initially for its Design and Development Accelerator program. It's not known whether the new lease is in addition to that, but the Minsk Square space totals 1,16,888 square feet across three full floors, and portions of two more.

According to The Hindu Businessline, a condition of Apple taking the lease was that no specified competitors be allowed to rent space in the building. Those competitors are named in the lease deed documents are Alphabet, Microsoft, Samsung, Xiaomi, Amazon, Huawei, Netflix, Facebook, Spotify, Baidu, and Tencent.

Apple is due to start paying the rent from July 1, 2023. The monthly figure of $300,000 will increase by 15% every three years.

While Apple has signed for ten years, the contract locks it and the building owner, Prestige Estates Projects, to only five years. Apple has an option renew the lease for three additional terms of five years each.

The new space in Bengaluru comes as Apple and its suppliers including Foxconn are aiming to move more production to India and away from China. As part of that, Foxconn has already announced plans to build a $700 million iPhone-focused plant in Bengaluru.