Co-working demand set to triple in the next 3 years

Knight Frank India, one of the leading International Property Consultants yesterday launched a report on the changing perceptions of the workplace titled Co-working: The office of the future. Key findings of the report:

• Over the past decade especially, the role of the work environment in enhancing employee productivity has been acknowledged as office design, amenities and even colour have been observed to have a significant impact on the operational efficiency of the employee. Recent research has also shown that the introduction of natural elements such as fresh air, sunlight, greenery and even natural smells and sounds in a workplace play an important role in reducing the employee’s work stress and enhancing his creativity.
• India, today, is witnessing a proliferation of start-ups and SMEs, buoyed by the government’s concerted efforts to create a sustainable eco-system for entrepreneurs in the country. On their part, the entrepreneurs—a large number of them being millennials—believe in harbouring global aspirations with a staggeringly ambitious mind-set that was not in evidence a few years back. This provides a perfect platform for dynamic co-working business centres to cater to the office space needs of these aggressive growth-seeking start-ups.
• Due to the changing perceptions of the office, the workplace is now being looked at as an environment that needs to be managed and optimised. It is being viewed as an instrument that could drive a dynamic and vibrant culture of corporate productivity impacting the financial, cultural and environmental ethos of the organisation. This far reaching agenda warrants an element of specialisation. The co-working operator is filling this niche and is fast being regarded as a specialist in workplace management who can cultivate an environment of collaborative enterprise that yields tangible benefits to the occupier.
• The number of co-working spaces across the globe has grown by 3,050% (600 centres to 18,900 centres) since 2010 while the number of people working in these facilities has exploded by close to 8,000% by growing from 21,000 seats to 1.7 mn seats in the same period, according to Statista Dossier. India is at the cusp of a co-working revolution with several large players spread across the country. There are close to 200 co-working players running an estimated 400 shared workspaces across the country today, compared to just Regus and few localised players in 2010 running less than 30 such centres.

Dr. Samantak Das, Chief Economist and National Director - Research, Knight Frank India, said “Due to the changing perceptions of the office, the workplace is being viewed as an instrument that could drive a dynamic and vibrant culture of corporate productivity impacting the financial, cultural and environmental ethos of the organisation. This far reaching agenda warrants an element of specialisation. The co-working operator is filling this niche and is fast being regarded as a specialist in workplace management who can cultivate an environment of collaborative enterprise that yields tangible benefits to the occupier. The fact that large Indian corporates today constitute approximately 50% of the co-working operator’s overall client roster bears testament to its increasingly widespread acceptance among mainstream occupiers. While co-working companies took up a modest 0.17 mn sq mt (1.8 mn sq ft) in 2017, the first quarter of 2018 itself has exceeded the annual tally of 2017 at (0.19 mn sq mt) 2 mn sq ft. The expansion plans of major players and the increasing appetite for this format from occupiers, property owners and co-working operators should see annual transaction numbers triple from current levels over the next 3 years.”