IKEA's malls business has bought a plot in Gurugram next to New Delhi for a shopping centre that will be its first to open in India.

Ingka Centres, which has 47 malls, that itself calls ‘meeting places’, anchored by IKEA stores across Europe, Russia and China, plans to enter North America and India.

The estimated investment for the project was around EUR 400 million (USD 450 million) and that construction will start in early 2022.

The company expected to complete the centre, which will besides an IKEA store also house office space, in late 2025.

Ingka Centres in February 2021 announced it had bought a plot in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi and planned to invest nearly Rs 55 billion in its first shopping centre in India.

The Noida store will hopefully open shortly after Gurugram. Like furniture giant IKEA, Ingka Centres is scouting for locations across major cities across many markets. In India, Ingka Centres will however now focus on the two Delhi projects for the time being.

IKEA opened its first store in India in 2018 in Hyderabad. Ingka Centres is owned by Ingka Group which also owns most IKEA stores worldwide.