| |August 20198CO-WORKING SPACES: DRIVERS TO THE INDIAN REAL ESTATENakul has close to two decades of experience working with The Oberoi Amarvilas and Regus Business Centres, and has been associated with Avanta for 11 years now.The concept of co-working spaces is in demand with advanced communication technology, making it possible for the geographically distribut-ed workforce of an organisation to operate out of different spaces. The fact that these are econom-ically viable but simultaneously connected with each other, the market for community workspac-es has grown several-fold in the last decade. Earlier, India was slow to catch up with the co-working concept as compared to global cities, like New York and London. However, the segment is growing exponentially in the last few years and expected to grow steadily in our country. At present, 12-16 million of the workforce is operating out of community workspaces. These workforces typically include start-up employees, freelancers, and staff of emerging businesses as well as those of large corporations. As per CBRE report published in April this year, co-working operators have leased out nearly 2.9 million sq. ft. of area in the first quarter of this calendar year. The increase registered in terms of the area leased out by the segment is four times greater than the first quarter of the previous year (2018). During the period January to March 2018, co-working operators had leased out just around 0.8 million sq. ft. of space. It is estimated that by the end of the calendar year 2020, the quantum of the area leased out for co-working spaces will reach 10 million sq. ft. after rising steadily over the next 18 months.By Nakul Mathur, MD, Avanta IndiaTHOUGHT LEADERSHIP
< Page 7 | Page 9 >