The demand for flexible workspace from large enterprises has been robust amid the COVID pandemic, while the co-living segment has been impacted because of work from the home concept as well as the closure of educational institutions, according to industry experts.
Realtors' body Naredco, along with its knowledge partner Cushman & Wakefield, on Tuesday, held a webinar titled 'Co-Working and Co-Living, Reimagined for growth in the post-pandemic world.
The experts were bullish about the growth potential of these two emerging segments, co-working, and co-living, in the real estate space.
Addressing the webinar, Naredco President Niranjan Hiranandani said the co-working segment would witness major growth, if the IT industry, which mainly prefers its own office campus, takes a turn towards flexible workspaces.
He said student housing, as part of the co-living segment, is going to be very big in the next couple of years.
"Educational institutions are not going to build hostel accommodations in a big way," he said, adding that they would prefer partnering with co-living operators.
Anshul Jain, Managing Director, India and SouthEast Asia, Cushman & Wakefield, said the co-working spaces are currently more attractive than ever before.
He said co-living has been temporarily impacted by the pandemic largely due to work-from-home policies.
Jain noted that co-working spaces are the need of the hour for corporate occupiers in these uncertain times as they offer smart business solutions to enterprises in the form of flexibility, capex savings, and new-age design that seeks to promote the organisational culture and a collaborative work environment.
"I am very bullish about both the sectors. The next five years belong to these two sectors and from a development community a big focus on how to capitalise on these sectors would be very interesting," he said.
Shriram Chitturi, CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Guesture; Pradeep Srinivas, Director- Private Equity, Investcorp; Nikhil Sikri, Co-founder and CEO, Zolostays; Krishnaswamy Nagarajan, Chief Operating Officer, Table Space Technologies; Arvindh Prakash Ayyaswamy, Sr. Real Estate and Facilities Portfolio Manager, Microsoft; Rajesh Arora, Member Finance, NAREDCO; Saurabh Shatdal, Managing Director, Capital Markets, Cushman & Wakefield; and Rajesh Goel, Director General, NAREDCO also participated in the discussion.
