New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS): Total area of office space leased out across major cities in the country during the January-September period in 2018 stood at 36.4 million square feet, 26 per cent higher on a year-on-year basis, a Colliers International report said on Friday.

"Gross absorption grew by 23 per cent Y-O-Y in Q3 to 12.3 million square feet, and by 26 per cent for the first nine months to 36.4 million square feet due to new interest from banking tenants and further expansion by tech groups," said the report "India Office Property Market Overview Q3 2018".

During the third quarter, Bengaluru leased out the highest share of office space among the cities at 3.7 million square feet, followed by Hyderabad where 2.1 million square feet of office space was leased out.

"Supporting the rise in Bangalore's real estate growth is the steady demand from the technology sector that constituted 41 per cent of the total leasing activity in Q3 2018," the report said.

The survey was carried out across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Noida and Gurugram.

In Delhi around 0.14 million square feet of office area was leased out during the third quarter, while around 1.9 million square feet was leased out in Mumbai, as per the report.