The growing demand of shared spaces was the main point of discussion at the recent Realty Webseries meet – Coworking Dynamics: Post COVID-19. It was organised by real estate magazwas ine Realty & More in association with PR firm ICCPL.the webinar hosted Ankur Bhatiani (Director, Urbainia Spaces), Oshikka Lumb (Co-Founder, FindMyCowork), Vikas Lakhani (Co-Founder, Insta Office), Puneet Chandra (Co-Founder & Director, Skootr), Tanisha Batra (MD, Worknest Business Centre), Vineet Anand (Director, Office Services NCR-Colliers International) and Prashant Sharma (Founder, Next57 Coworking).
The panelists noted how corporates and international funding players have realised the importance of this concept in India, and many realtors are already offering these shared work spaces to enter their malls on a partnership model.
“There has been a shift from traditional working space to managed working spaces even in smaller cities. We got queries from Tier-II cities like Indore, Ahmedabad, and Coimbatore. Since MNCs have high capex (capital expenditure) cost, I believe these companies will adopt flexible working and decentralisation, and this will help co-working players. There will be gradual boom for this sector,” said Oshikka Lumb, Co-Founder, FindMyCowork.
“Work from Home (WFH) worked well, but no good company wants WFH as a culture. It cannot be a long term model. People will ask for flexibility, which co-working spaces can provide. In fact, there are people who prefer to pay a premium to spaces that can take care of their needs,” she added.
“Walk to work will be future as companies will have co-working spaces in nearby areas,” said Ankur Bhatiani, Director, Urbania Spaces.
“In coming six months, co-working players will have a lot to thank COVID-19 for,” added Puneet Chandra, Co-Founder & Director, Skootr.Debunking the myth that business owners were asking for discounts, realty experts said that most clients were looking for flexibility options, not discounts.
“A lot of existing tenants are coming for resizing. In fact, there has been a substantial increase of business in last one month, and these leases are long term. Right now, the focus is on making long term relationships. Now companies are taking small offices in other places as against big spaces in CBDs, which helps in business continuity,” stated Tanisha Batra, MD, Worknest Business Centre.
“Our clients are asking to restructure leases and secure feature with flexibility norms in lease deeds, ” said Vineet Anand (Director, Office Services NCR-Colliers International.