Co-working spaces a rising trend in city

Hyderabad has over 40 co-working spaces in and around IT Corridor

A convenient workspace: Youth from different start-ups in a co-working space, as the idea catches the imagination of many in the city.

The co-working space segment in the city is seeing an upward trend with more start-ups taking to the idea. Sample this: about four years ago, there were less than half a dozen co-working spaces. Centred in and around the IT Corridor and Jubilee Hills, the number is now over 40, a seven-fold increase.

Analysts believe that there is potential for the co-working space segment to grow by leaps and bounds. According to Ram Chandnani, managing director, Advisory & Transaction Services, India CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd, over 40 co-working spaces translate into approximately nine lakh sq ft, which is around 11,500 seats.

“As Hyderabad continues to garner interest from global and domestic occupiers, co-working spaces will see an uptick in demand. This will also lead to established players in the segment opening up their facilities here. In the long term, there will be significant growth opportunity for the co-working segment in the city,” Mr. Chandani said.

He pointed out that co-working as an option is witnessing increasing interest from occupiers who are focused on cost efficiencies. “Co-working operators too are witnessing demand for available space as well as the trend of occupiers pre-committing to space in upcoming supply,” he said.

Analysts say that there are different kinds of co-working spaces — from those that provide only space solutions to those that go a step further and offer allied services to start-ups such as accounting solutions and to those that double-up as incubators.

IIIT professor and former HYSEA president Ramesh Loganathan says, “While some are rent-driven, others deal with only start-ups. There are others who offer networking opportunities to start-ups. Another kind is the accelerator that provides structured programmes. But these are few.” With a second co-working space recently launched in Hi-tec City, 91 Springboard offers affiliated services. “Start-ups have to deal with a lot of problems apart from developing their own product. There are affiliated services such as legal, accounting and hiring services that are provided,” says Kaustav Roy, Hyderabad Operations manager of 91 Springboard. This apart, networking opportunities and investor meet-ups are also organised. And for those with a creative bent of mind, there are theme-focussed co-working spaces like Jxtapose. The idea, according to co-founder Shruti Ramesh, is to give creativity a boost.

“We wanted to create a convenient platform for creative people and to promote creative entrepreneurship. We have two retail stores in our retail areas which we lease out to upcoming artists or designers. The idea is to give economic retail space to people who are starting. There is a studio which is like a workshop for making mock-ups,” she says.