Plug-And-Play, & Stay

Sharing resources is at the heart of most of the innovative offerings today. Co-living is one such disruption led by nomadic millennials, who are redefining the meaning of ‘living.’ The concept is fast emerging as an alternative residential real estate offering, ensuing as a sustainable solution to the ever-growing urban space scarcity. Although in its nascent stage, co-living is an excellent area of business interest

- Amit Singh

From sharing rides and high-end equipment to sharing workplaces and even living spaces – this is truly an age of owning experiences over assets. Millennials’ lack of interest in owning a home and escalating real estate prices are giving rise to a new way of living: co-living. India is a $50 billion housing market, which includes 15 million migrant students and 40 million migrant professionals. There is an untapped demand of 60 million beds currently and this creates a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs and start-ups operating in the space, highlights Rohit Kapoor, CEO, New Real Estate Businesses, OYO.

In fact, the nomads of today are becoming a major force driving the Indian co-living market—an estimated 42 per cent of the workforce in India constituted millennials in 2018 across the top seven cities in India. Millennials will continue to form a major proportion of the country’s working population, nearly 41 per cent of the workforce by 2023. A large percentage of millennials are moving to urban centres in search of jobs. However, there is a severe shortage of quality affordable housing in Tier-1 and -2 cities. “The first thing they face is high and unruly demands from the landlords who belong to the unorganised sector offering little facilities. With the technology parks and business centres in proximity, the rentals shoot up even further,” shares Suresh Rangarajan, Founder and CEO, Colive. This is despite the fact that

India has an unsold inventory of 12.76 lakh units across major cities. “Top seven cities, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad had residential inventory overhang of 33 months in Q4 2018. Co-living startups are tackling this unique problem by turning the unsold residential properties into fully-managed shared accommodations equipped with a wide range of lifestyle amenities,” informs Ismail Khan, Chief Business Officer, Nestaway Technologies.