Coworking player Simpliwork takes 250,000 sq ft leased office space in Pune

Company has delivered 1.2 mn sq ft to clients so far post Covid

Flexible coworking space operator Simpliwork has taken up 250,000 square feet of office space in Pune on lease to cater to IT and SaaS companies in the city, said a top company official.

The start-up, which is a part of the Salarpuria Sattva group headquartered in Bengaluru, has taken up the space from Lunkad Realty in their new Sky One project, said Kunal Walia, Founder & CEO at Simpliwork. The firm has clients such as Lufthansa, Mastercard and American Express on board. Real estate consultancy firm JLL brokered this deal.

“While business was affected post Covid, now there are a significant number of enquiries coming in as our model caters to flexible workspaces,” said Walia. “A large enterprise will come to us if they are not sure what could be their total strength in the city or if they want say 500 seats in the next 3-6 months then we would be the person of choice for them.”

The company has already delivered 1.2 million square feet of office space to several clients post the pandemic outbreak in cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Pune, and Hyderabad. It offers dedicated workspaces to clients in terms of design, fitouts, meeting rooms, recreational areas etc. 

Simpliwork is next targeting Mumbai and would have centres coming up there in the next two quarters. “Over the next two years we will deliver at least 500,000 square feet office space in Mumbai,” said Walia, whose company has so far delivered 2.4 million square feet of flexible office spaces in total to medium and large enterprises with an investment of up to Rs 500 crore in customisation.

According to a JLL report, India’s office market witnessed a net absorption of 5.4 million sq ft in quarter ending September, an increase of 64 per cent versus quarter ending June 2020. 

“While we continue to see the impact of the pandemic on various businesses, there is a significant surge in activity across most office markets under consideration. This is seen in gross leasing which more than doubled from the previous quarter at 13.8 million sq ft. At the same time, it is important to note that large and mid-sized occupiers across major markets continue to review their real estate portfolios in a bid to optimise cost, higher emphasis is being given on sustainability and employee well-being as well as adoption of flexible working practices.” said Ramesh Nair, CEO and Country Head, India, JLL.

As Simpliwork’s nature of business requires multi-year contracts which are anywhere between 3 year and 5 years, it has not witnessed any fall through with any client post Covid spread.