Interview with Viral Chhajer, Co-founder & CEO, Stay Abode

The Collective Living Trend Increasingly evident is the millennia’s shift in values towards ownership. Whether it is co-working spaces, time share holidays or shared-cab services, the emphasis is on flexibility and sense of community. More and more people are moving to cities and want to own less. But, traditional residential real-estate has always been designed around creating homes for families that require a private space with a kitchen and living room. With the increasing property prices, this design makes real-estate unaffordable for the urban millennial. The Co-living space, often termed as modern equivalent of boarding house is blurring the lines between private and social residential. PodShare was founded in 2012 as a response to Los Angeles’ affordable housing crisis. In Syracuse, New York, Commonspace is following a somewhat similar residential model and WeLivefrom the founders of WeWork, recently opened its first living spaces in Washington D.C. and New York City. Developers like PMG too is building 3,500 units in Chicago, Brooklyn, and Miami, featuring smaller living spaces and more shared space.Be it affordable accommodation without compromising on amenities or getting acquainted in a new city, the temporary landing pad or home-like setup, co-living spaces have come across as the best solution. This new trend has hit the Indian metropolitan cities as well. According to Viral Chhajer, Co-founder & CEO of Stay Abode, one of the providers of co-living residences, close to 44% of the urban millennial admit to feeling lonely at some point or the other when they move to a new city. Co-living spaces in India are perfect solutions to these complex problems.For instance, StayAbode has a host of interest-based socializing spaces in their properties to build a strong community. He added, “Co-living spaces fully utilize all spaces in the building – like corridors, parking spaces and any extra space and convert them into usable areas for recreation. This focus on space utilization and creating more shared spaces over private spaces allows us to create a cost efficiency which makes these spaces more affordable for the residents.” “The rental residential market is pegged at over $25Bn in India and with the lack of a single brand with substantial market share, the market is ripe for disruption. We’re riding at the back of a scalable technology solution and unique product innovations that’ll allow us to capture significant market share in this space ”Viral Chhajer The appeal of co-living lies in the community living it offers to the professionals or students living away from families. The fully furnished accommodations with cleaning services, high-speed Wi-Fi, on-site laundry, etc. are the added attractions. Currently, for the millennial, renting an apartment is not only about the living space or facilities but also about the safety, neighbours and social interaction. Thus, some co-living space providers also offer amenities like, gymnasium, swimming pool, co-working areas and organize periodical parties for the residents. CoLive.in is a women’s only co-living space that provides services like Zumba dance classes, self-defence training and exclusive female fitness trainer on demand. Read full Interview here: http://realtyplusmag.com/the-collective-living-trend/