In commercial real estate most places are not fully furnished; the retail or office properties in Mumbai are often warm shell (ceiling, walls and flooring finished) or bare shell (unfinished interior).

It’s the warm & bare shell properties that end up being more prone to be neglected by the owner. In Mumbai, it’s not uncommon for a commercial space to be on the market for months if not over a year at a time. During this time interested parties will come by to see these warm & bare shell properties and more often than not the properties are not presentable to the potential buyer/lease. Namely, there is pigeon poo on the ground. This is not an exception – it’s extremely common.

It’s quite remarkable because

1) Hiring someone to clean the property once a week in Mumbai could cost as little as 1,000 rupees ($15 USD) depending on the size of the property. Bottom line, not expensive.

2) Mumbai commercial properties are some of the most expensive in the world where properties can go from millions of dollars, to tens of millions, to hundreds of millions. Bottom line, cleaning is a good investment.

If you own a Mumbai office space or retail space and want to stand out from the crowd, clean up the pigeon poo!