CoWrks plans to roll out 11 million sqft space by 2020
Bengaluru-headquartered collaborative workspace firm CoWrks is betting big on the flexible office market as it seeks to roll out 11 million sqft of coworking space in the country by 2020 and expand its presence in newer cities by the end of next year. The company currently operates 1.5 million sqft of office space across cities, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Hyderabad, and intends to close FY19 with 2.5 million sqft. “CoWrks started with over 600 desks two years ago, and will close the financial year with 27,000 desks across five locations,” said SidharthMenda, CEO, CoWrks. The company plans to enter tier-II cities such as Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore and Ahmedabad with smaller formats by the end of next year and is targeting a member base of 1,20,000 across all geographies. “We will tailor-make products according to the needs of the customer in smaller cities as there are many clients who want us to expand in these towns. Currently, we have 85% occupancy across all our centres with 60% of the clients being enterprises,” said AbhishekGoenka, CFO, Cowrks. Large information technology, banking, financial services and insurance companies are increasingly opting for coworking spaces to cope with rising rentals and shortage of ready-to-move grade A offices in India’s prime property markets. According to CBRE South Asia report, the overall stock of flexible space market in India (including all seven Indian cities) increased by about 50%, from almost 10 million sqft in 2017 to about 15 million sqft by Q3 2018, making it among the biggest markets in the Apac region. Moreover, the share of flexible spaces as part of total office absorption has also doubled from 5% in H1 2017 to about 10% in H1 2018.
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