Co-working space stock crosses 8 mln sq ft in top 8 cities: C&W

Co-working operators have taken on lease over 8 million sq ft of office space till April across the eight major cities, driven by rising demand for flexible workspace particularly from startups, according to property consultant Cushman & Wakefield.

"The love for co-working spaces has been on a rise...Co-working spaces have become a place for collaboration, networking and innovating with like-minded millennials," the consultant said in its latest report 'Who Moved Your Workplace? Flexible Workplace On Turbocharge'.

Intense competition among shared workplace operators is leading to rapid expansion with stock exceeding 8 million sq ft across top eight cities, where more than 120 co-working operators are present and competing with each other.

Awfis, WeWork, CoWrks, SmartWorks, Skootr, 91 Springboard, Innova8 are some of the major players operating in this business.

"We foresee current ramp-up stage to continue for the next couple of years," the report said.

Bengaluru accounts for 32 per cent of the total flexible workspace stock at 2.6 million sq ft, followed by Mumbai with 25 per cent share, Delhi-NCR 17 per cent, Hyderabad 11 per cent and Pune 8 per cent.

"Millennials are a formidable part (46 per cent) of the India's workforce. This workforce is now venturing in freelancing, entrepreneurial and temporary work opportunities, making up for a large percentage of people opting for flexible workplaces," Cushman & Wakefield India Country Head and Managing Director Anshul Jain said.

The number is only set to grow as a higher number of millennials enter the workforce, it added.

"Not only freelancers, but large corporations are also partnering with co-working spaces so that companies have better access to innovators, innovations, talent, work-life balance and reduced real estate costs," Jain said.

The report highlighted that there are over 5,200 startups operating in the country.

"The country today stands at the third position in terms of number of startups only after China and the US. Poised to grow 2.2 times to reach 10,500 by 2020, the startups will remain the dominant clientele for co-working spaces," it added.

Apart from statups, C&W said that the co-working space is also being preferred now by corporates.

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"The concept of contractual jobs is now picking up in the corporate world. On-demand jobs, outsourced services and short-duration team put together make up for a flexible workforce that can be easily accommodated in a shared working space. This allows the corporate to lease a space for a selected period of time," the report said.

The corporates looking to expand into new geographies with low-budget opt for co-working spaces.

Some of the corporates that have leased co-working spaces in top cities in the country include as Adobe, Cisco, Gartner, E&Y, Dell, Airtel, Nearbuy, Xander, Godaddy, HSBC, Truecaller, etc.