Outsourcing giant Convergys has left its iconic ship-shaped building in Cyber City and moved to a new office on Sohna Road after rents in the IT hub appreciated sharply in anticipation of Rapid Metro's launch.

Convergys didn't renew the lease for its office in DLF Atria, whose rent shot up 33% in recent months to Rs 107 per sqft, industry insiders said. The standard rent for office space in Cyber City before this was Rs 80 per sqft.

In contrast, office space on Sohna Road is available for Rs 40 per sqft. Touted as the next hot property on Gurgaon's real estate map, Sohna Road has more than just low rents working in its favour.

It is close to NH8 and has state-of-the-art office space, though it can't compare with Cyber City yet in terms of connectivity.

Convergys, which provides outsourcing services to fortune 500 companies across the globe, was one of the first BPOs to set up base in Cyber City. It moved into the multi-storeyed 2.40 lakh sqft DLF Atria nine years ago and has over 5,000 employees.

A senior DLF executive said the real estate major had struck a deal with an international oil company to rent out Atria for a whopping Rs 25 crore per annum before Convergys decided to leave. Convergys could not be contacted for its version despite several attempts. "Rentals are going northward because of improved infrastructure and Rapid Metro's last-mile connectivity that gives cutting edge to Cyber City," said a senior DLF executive handling the office-space vertical in Gurgaon.

In Cyber Park, over 1 lakh sqft in different properties owned by DLF is up for grab. Real estate market watchers are not surprised by Convergys' exit from Cyber City. "A lot of big corporates are now looking for SEZs, where the rents are low and the facilities better," said a senior executive of Cushman Wakefield.