Renting an office in Gwalior — the 2026 guide.

Nine questions before you compare rents.

Two rates per square foot are not comparable until these are answered. Most disappointments in a commercial lease trace back to one of them.

1. Carpet, built-up or chargeable?

   Three different numbers for the same room. Rent is usually quoted on chargeable (super built-up) area, which includes a share of corridors, lobbies and lifts. Ask which area the rate applies to, and what the loading is, before comparing two buildings on rupees per square foot.

2. What does CAM cover, and what does it cost?

   Ask for the schedule, not a slogan. At Keshar Towers, CAM is billed separately. It covers maintenance and painting of the building, the lifts, HVAC and lighting of the common areas, cleaning, outside parking, the outside façade, landscaping, building lighting, outside lighting, and security and CCTV around the clock. Security and CCTV are included in CAM. The indicative office CAM is ₹10 per sq ft a month, not a quotation.

3. Is the air conditioning central, and is it metered?

   Split units are the tenant's capital cost and electricity. Central chilled-water AC metered to each unit is the Grade A standard: the building runs it, you pay for what you use. At Keshar Towers the chiller is metered to each unit. CAM covers HVAC of the common areas, not the metered use inside the office.

4. Power backup — 100%, or the lifts only?

   Ask what the DG set actually covers. "Power backup" in a listing can mean the corridor lights. For an office it has to mean every socket in the unit. At Keshar Towers, Generator backup covers the office and the air conditioning. A fully managed office also has an inverter, so that office has an uninterrupted supply. Electricity is charged at the Madhya Pradesh commercial tariff. The diesel-generator rate is roughly three times that tariff and moves with the price of fuel. A fully managed office includes electricity in the agreed package.

5. Parking — how many, and whose?

   Every office has a dedicated parking allotment, and there is a dedicated two-wheeler area. Both are given at concessional charges, not free. The building also has 300+ paid, covered basement spaces managed by on-site staff, plus roadside parking for 50+ cars.

6. Fire NOC and Occupancy Certificate

   Both should be held by the developer and shown on request. Without them, a corporate tenant's own compliance team will reject the premises, however good the rent.

7. Lock-in, escalation, deposit, notice

   The four numbers that decide what the lease really costs. Market practice in Gwalior for a commercial lease is a multi-year term with a lock-in, a deposit of several months' rent, and a yearly escalation. Ask for all four in writing before the visit.

8. GST and TDS

   Commercial rent attracts 18% GST on top of the quoted figure, and a company tenant deducts TDS on rent above the threshold. Budget on the all-in number.

9. Who is already in the building?

   The tenant list tells you more than the brochure. Insurers, oil companies and listed corporates run premises audits before signing; if they are in, the building has passed them.