And Now, Sharing Living Space Too!

For millennials who would rather invest in bucket-list travel destinations instead of million-dollar-worth assets, housing has often been the least of ‘priorities’. When workplaces can be shared and even rides to offices, can homes not be shared too? Estimated to be worth around USD 8-10 billion market in India, co-living spaces have been a clear winner for the millennial generation in metros where the rentals are always over the roof. In addition, while co-living spaces are convenient and comfortable, they provide a host of facilities at affordable prices, points out John Jacob, Associate Vice President of Delhi-based start-up CoHo.in. Commenting on why co-living spaces strike the right chord with youngsters, Jacob, says, “The tenants don’t have to pay any bills such as electricity, water, internet or even a maintenance fee.”

Franchise Model to Scale Faster

Although not into franchising for now, Jacob says in the coming days CoHo will be looking for franchising opportunities in order to scale faster. “We will soon expand to Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai, and by the end of the year be present in Bengaluru. We have realised that in order to grow faster, we will need the franchising model. We are not into franchising yet, but that will happen soon,” he says. The rent rates at CoHo are between Rs 12,000-15,000 depending upon the location.

High demand, Low Supply

According to Viral Chhajer, Co-Founder and CEO of Bengaluru-based co-living platform StayAbode, the biggest challenge in the market is to find continuous supply of inventory.

Being engaged with this sector since 2016, StayAbode has adopted a full inventory model which means they rent a building for long terms, renovate the interiors to suit the needs of millennials and sub-rent it. While it started with 60 people, currently StayAbode is present at 15 locations in Bengaluru alone, while serving 800 tenants.

The start-up will soon expand to five other locations, and aims to be present in Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR and Mumbai shortly. Interestingly, StayAbode is trying to use filters based on the interests, preferences and lifestyle choices of its tenants and is in the process of putting people with similar choices together. “We are trying to understand who could be put with whom and in which location based on their choices,” Chhajer says. As the market is largely driven by unorganised players and there are no standardisations in the system, Chhajer says that although the start-up is open to the franchising model, for now they have not ventured into this arena. “We will be open to collaborations with property owners who will have the right assets and we would be managing the operations,” he says.  

High Awareness in Students

For Karan Kaushish, co-founder of one of the largest student co-living platforms in the country, Your Space, his personal journey with student hostels and co-living spaces abroad led him to start his venture. Launched in 2016 in Delhi, Your Space offers unique student housing facility in the country. Two years since its inception, the start-up has its services now in five cities and serves 1,300 students.

While most of the co-living spaces are meant for working millennials too, Your Space is one of the few platforms solely dedicated for students. With technology-enabled features like SOS and an internal app, the start-up is building a robust technology system in order to streamline its operations. It aims to have 5,000 beds by next year and 50,000 in the next five years. While Your Space is open to franchising in collaboration with property owners and developers, it says the model will be adopted only in the near future.

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