Co-working operators leases 7,068 office desks in Jan-Mar across Delhi-NCR

Co-working operators provided on lease 7,068 desks in January-March across Delhi-NCR, highest since December quarter of 2019, amid rising demand for flexible workspace from corporates and others, according to JLL India.

Education, consulting and technology companies led the leasing demand for flexible seats.

The demand for managed office from enterprises was high and they contributed 75 per cent of the total leasing of flexible seats during the January-March quarter of this calendar year.

"What is interesting to note is that most of this leasing demand was for managed office space by enterprises who were looking for a more customized flex space with a focus on end-to-end amenities and workplace management," the consultant said.

During 2022 calendar year, 21,299 seats were leased by co-working operators, of which 65 per cent demand was for managed office space.

More than 28,000 seats were leased by flex operators during the 15-month period from January 2022-March 2023. During this period, 67 per cent of the seats (around 19,000 seats) were for enterprise solutions or managed office space.

Around 58 per cent of the enterprise leases (around 11,000 seats) were of large size for 300 seats and above per deal.

Most of the demand (61 per cent) for flex seats in the same period (January 2022 to March 2023) was driven by domestic firms.

Startups accounted for 38 per cent of this demand as it provides flexibility in lease tenures, the ability to scale up or down in shorter turnaround times, and agility to position different project teams across multiple locations.

"The concept of managed office space is created to meet the demand of big enterprises which require their workplace according to their brand philosophy and design guidelines. The flex space operators offering services in managed office domain create a workplace unique to the requirements of every occupier and offer hospitality-like characteristics and value-added services," JLL said.

The consultant noted that flexible workspace is in fact value accretive, additive, and complementary to conventional office space.

Share of space leased by flexible workspace operators in Delhi-NCR's gross office leasing has increased from 10.9 per cent in 2018 to 23.8 per cent in 2022.

During January-March 2023, robust leasing was done by flex operators, as they had a share of 19 per cent in gross leasing.

The flex space stock in Delhi-NCR increased from 6.3 million (63 lakh) square feet in 2019 to 9.4 million (94 lakh) sq ft in Q1 2023.

Major co-working players are Wework India, Smartworks, Simpliwork Offices, Awfis, Skootr, The Executive Centre, Urban Vault, IndiQube, 91Springboard, CorporatEdge, 315Work Avenue, Akasa Coworking, The Office Pass, Avanta India and BHIVE Workspace, among others.