Co-working firm Smartworks has taken on lease 5.3 lakh square feet office space in Noida and Gurugram to cater to rising demand of flexible work space from corporates. Founded by Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani, Smartworks provides managed office space to enterprises. It is present in 12 cities with a portfolio of around 80 lakh (8 million) square feet.

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The two new centres, located at Golf Course Road in Gurugram and Noida Sector 62, will be operational in June-July. With the addition of these two properties, Smartworks office space portfolio has crossed 10 lakh (one million) square feet in Delhi-NCR.

The upcoming office space at Golf Course Road is spread over 2.3 lakh square feet, while 3 lakh square feet flexible space will come up in Noida, Sector 62.

"While the hybrid work model continues, the major cities in India are seeing a steady rise in demand for physical office spaces as employees are more interested to return to office. We will continue to expand across major locations, including Delhi-NCR," said Sarda, founder of Smartworks.

The company is also witnessing multi-city demand from a single corporate clients.

"Flexibility will be a key component of real estate portfolio management as occupiers remain cautious about capex-spend. They are also strategically incorporating flex spaces in their real estate portfolios, leading to escalating demand for managed solutions. For our enterprise members, the demands are unique based on their business requirements, and we are working with them to create workspaces based on their needs," he added.

Smartworks aims to add an additional 50 lakh (5 million) square feet of space in financial year 2023-2024 across major cities.

"Smartworks' pan-India expansion comes amid more than 90 per cent occupancy across our facilities as demand from enterprises and mature centres (operational for over a year) rises significantly," said Sarda.

Smartworks is present in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Indore, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad. It will soon enter in Kochi and Coimbatore.

In April, Sarda had told PTI that the company plans to raise USD 70-90 million in equity funds this fiscal year for future growth.

In 2019, Smartworks raised USD 25 million from Singapore's Keppel Land Ltd to fund its expansion plan.

Co-working operators, which include those providing managed office space, take on lease spaces from real estate developers and then further sub-lease them to enterprises as well as individuals.
Smartworks takes the entire office building on lease and then provides office space to corporates on a per-desk basis.

Apart from Smartworks, the major co-working players are Wework India, Simpliwork Offices, Awfis, Skootr, The Executive Centre, Urban Vault, IndiQube, 91Springboard, 315Work Avenue, Akasa Coworking, The Office Pass, Avanta India and BHIVE Workspace among others.