Co-Living: The New Sharing for Millennials
By Viral Chhajer - CEO & Co-founder, Stayabode Imagine your first job is in a big city and you've just moved here to work. Everything is strange and new. Even as you are struggling to adjust to the job you have to make the round of flats to rent, all pricey, demanding high deposits and probably not in the surroundings that you would like. If you thought of sharing, you would have to ask around or scan the adverts in facebook groups and on the Internet to find out who would like to split rent with you. Once all this is sorted out you have to make the effort to equip the place with all the necessities and probably also furnish it. What if we told you that we can offer you a place where you just have to go in and start living, all the preliminaries being taken care of, including the people whom you can share the house? Welcome to the concept of co-living. Before I start on what we at StayAbode do and how we can help you, let me explain the concept of co-living. We know that students and young adults often share flats so that they can bring down their costs of living. Students most often have to make do with paying guest accommodations while young adults in their first jobs have to look around for people willing to share a house. There is an acute shortage in the supply of such accommodation, especially where students are concerned who are often on a tight budget. According to a recent report, there is a demand - supply mismatch of about 8.9 million students to find hostels to live in. Co-living is filling this huge gap by taking the shared living concept forward in a more organised way, geared towards millennials who are changing the rules of the game. Millennials are restless and eager for new experiences. They are also traveling more to different cities in search of education, jobs and careers. While the large four metros had always been attractive as employment destinations, cities like Pune, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad etc., are seeing a virtual explosion in the millennial migrant population. They also have to live somewhere that is affordable, pleasant, satisfy their desires for new experiences while offering them the comfort of being part of a community. In a report released in June JLL-FICCI observed, “The rising demand for shared renting will propel the market and offer a business opportunity of Rs 1 trillion by 2023 along with the capacity of 5.7 million beds from the previous levels of Rs 458 billion and 3.6 million beds in 2018.” According to a RedSeer report, in India the nascent co-living segment is rapidly growing and is currently estimated to be worth $12 billion, with an addressable market size of about 10 million customers the majority of it belonging to the urban workforce. In 2018 Knight Frank had observed that more than 50% of millennials in the age bracket of 18 to 35 years migrating to places such as Mumbai, Bengaluru and the NCR were looking to pay up to Rs 15,000 a month in co-living rentals. The main drivers for co-living rentals are easy access to colleges and their workplace and infrastructure. Rental costs are third in the list of priorities in many cases. Sensing the opportunity in the sector private equity firms such as Goldman Sachs, Warburg Pincus and housing finance company HDFC have started investing in start-ups that offer co-living space. That is why we started StayAbode in 2016, because we realised that millennials needed a place where they can not only stay in comfort, feel safe but they also get the opportunity to mingle with like-minded people, make new friends and have a healthy social life. Our co-living spaces are affordable and cater to different budgets. We ask for only three months rentals as advance compared to the 10 month deposit that a traditional landlord would charge. Our ready-to-live accommodation comes furnished with all the essential amenities needed for comfortable living. Our rents are all inclusive and there are no sudden, extra unforeseen charges. Our places are designed to give tenants all the creature comforts, privacy at the same time ensuring that resources are optimally shared. We give you the option to share or stay on your own, while still being part of the community. Being away from family and childhood friends does not mean that people have to be lonely. StayAbode understands the importance of fostering a feeling of belonging to a community and with that in mind we organise events and gatherings where tenants can participate, be part of it or be observers and enjoy it.
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