Co-working spaces in demand in Covid-hit India

Kolkata | New Delhi: Coworking and managed office space providers are seeing an influx of new clients, as companies, led by those in IT, technology, digital and BFSI, explore flexible, cost-effective working models for employees returning to the desk.This includes giving employees the options of working out of distributed offices near their homes on a rotational basis or even from tier-2 cities from where several employees have been operating after stay-at-home orders were issued following the coronavirus outbreak.Leading players such as Awfis, IndiQube, Smartworks, 91springboard, Wework and Incuspaze are aggressively scaling up space/seats in line with the growing demand.Awfis is planning to increase seat count from around 40,000 now to 60,000 by December, while Smartworks plans to add about 3 million sq ft of space to its existing footprint of 4 million sq ft by end of FY22. Incuspaze said it will add 10,000 seats to its 4,500-seat tally, primarily in tier-2 cities.“When it comes to new signups, we've touched the levels we saw in February 2020. We have around 30-35 new companies signing up every month now,” said Amit Ramani, CEO Awfis. “We recently had companies in consumer, FMCG, pharma and edtech sign up. IT/ITES has always been a strong source of demand, and that continues.”Conventional is out. “Companies don't want to be saddled with 5-10 year leases,” said Ramani.Companies are actively pursuing flexible workspaces as they help in reducing capital costs and place greater emphasis on employee wellbeing and sustainability.Options like the hub-and-spoke model or part-time model, where employees come in on a rotational basis, and therefore require fewer seats, are gaining traction.“We expect this rising demand to continue, especially by large enterprises which are reconsidering their fixed asset investments to remain agile and retain the flexibility to adjust operations based on current market conditions,” said Karan Virwani, CEO, WeWork India.Over the last three months, Smartworks has leased more than 350,000 sq ft to clients, primarily from IT, BFSI and manufacturing sectors, as the Covid-19 vaccine has fuelled a surge in demand for flex workspaces, said founder Neetish Sarda. For the first time, even traditional Indian promoter-driven companies are showing interest, said Anand Vemuri, cofounder of 91springboard. While smaller companies have started coming back, 91springboard now also has a pipeline of major companies that will join by April or May. ITILITE, a large SaaS firm has signed up, while another large Indian tech company is looking to move headquarters to them.IndiQube recently signed up Walmart, Hitachi and French IT firm Sopra, said cofounder Rishi Das. Coworking and managed office space providers said they see big opportunities in tier-2 cities.Incuspaze, which recently launched a 1,000-seater centre in Vadodara, will soon be adding capacity in Ahmedabad, Trivandrum and Kochi. “Organisations across the board are showing interest. Indian arms of MNCs which were earlier reluctant are now getting a global push to reduce costs; even old-school, homegrown companies are approaching us. 2021 will be the biggest boom year,” said its CEO Sanjay Choudhary. Awfis is expanding to Indore this year and also considering Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow, Jaipur and Kochi. “Freshers used to be available in tier-2, but now middle-management is also available. So companies can actually have offices in these areas. We want to start partnerships with smaller coworking centres in small cities. We have aligned with a few in Jaipur, Coimbatore and Chandigarh and are aiming to have 1,500 seats this year,” said IndiQube’s Das. 80694513

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