Co-working operators rent out 224,000 seats to firms across 8 cities: C&W

Co-working centre operators rented out a record 2.24 lakh seats last year across eight major cities mainly on rising demand of managed office space from corporates, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield data showed that co-working or flexible office space operators had provided 1.56 lakh desks in 2023 in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad.

These operators take office space on rent from real estate developers and property owners to set up their facilities and then they provide workspaces to corporates of all sizes, professionals and individuals.

"With global enterprises increasingly adopting a 'Core+Flex' leasing strategy, combining traditional offices with managed workspaces, flexible workspace demand is expected to maintain its strong growth trajectory in 2025 and beyond," Ramita Arora, Managing Director (Bengaluru) and Head- Flex, India, Cushman & Wakefield, said.

This will further drive uptake in Grade A/A+ assets across major cities by leading managed space operators.

"Best-in-class amenities, sustainability, and technology integration will continue to shape enterprise flexible workspaces demand in the near to medium term," Arora said.

Co-working centre operators rented out 64,000 seats in Bengaluru, 39,000 seats in Pune, 38,000 seats in Delhi-NCR, 28,000 seats in Mumbai, 26,000 desks in Hyderabad and 25,000 in Chennai.

In Kolkata and Ahmedabad, they were able to provide only 1,900 seats each.

Last month, Cushman & Wakefield had reported that India's office market was very active in 2024 with gross leasing of workspace witnessing 19 per cent year-on-year increase to a record 885.2 lakh square feet across the eight major cities.

To expand their presence and portfolios, co-working or flexible space operators took on rent 124.2 lakh square feet of space last year across these eight cities, an increase of 58 per cent from 78.9 lakh square feet in 2023.

Sectors like IT-BPM, engineering & manufacturing and BFSI as well as professional service provides are the major drivers of office demand in the country.