Working spaces in the world

Historically, efficient commercial floor plates have been emphasised by the operators in the commercial executive space rather than sharing information, collaborating and increasing the productivity of the workers. These floor plates, maximizes the number of rentable offices that can be passed on quickly and rented at high volume.

Serviced offices, which were introduced many decades ago into the commercial market offered a different package of benefits which included reception and secretarial services, phone lines, faxes and postal services; dedicated office space to the same users i.

e. the right to occupy the same space during the term of the tenancy and short term leases. However, with the changing nature of the work force and the technological improvements many of these benefits have been superseded due to the advancement of mobile phones, internet and cloud based. Therefore, a key consideration for landlords is how to better utilize existing office space, simultaneously meet the changing nature of the workforce, and obtain maximum cash inflow of rentals.

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[Brodel, Pibal, 2015]

The limited flexibility along with long time leases and its high cost of establishment and maintenance of full-fledged offices makes the working space model unviable. Hence as a consequence, for the 21st generation workforce predominantly, startups, SMEs or freelancers and sometimes established medium sized firms, the commercial real estate has remained a distant dream. As the new improved industrialization enables a distributed workforce along with a transit economy, multiple travel options, they are offered access to economical spaces in terms of plug-and-play cubicles fostering innovation and collaboration.

For these marginal requirements, large office spaces are not required, hence ruining the economics for these large commercial workspace provider organizations. This requirement of small spaces led to creation of a new paradigm in office space usage which is termed as collaborative working or co-working. [Green, 2014]

Coworking spaces are common creative spaces designed for workers to connect, collaborate, and promote productivity. The flexibility, the ability to create professional and social connection and provide different work environments, as well as price, location, and infrastructure are key factors for the success of coworking spaces [Miller, Olsen, Rich, Takao 2016]. Comparatively, co working spaces are beneficial as workers can attain a better control over the job and alongside can be a participant of a like-minded community; this is according to various case studies conducted throughout the world.

Individuals using coworking spaces vary across demographic and economic segments but Millennials are the most prominent group. This generation is large (approximately 80m people between the age of 18-33, twice the size of Generation X) and view cross collaboration as a core competency required to overcome business challenges [Green, 2014]. A healthy work-life balance and indifference to corporate structure and hierarchy are common sentiments with an increased demand for flexible and cohesive work environments

21st Century has seen the onset of the startup paradigm where the rate of emergence is approximately 4 to 5 startups developing each day. This has facilitated and boosted the Indian Real Estate commercial space to ever increasing demands and pressure. With a total employee base of a million, India has become the third largest startup hub in the world, the numbers are expected to more than double by 2020. [Uda, 2013] In addition, India is growing in fast pace - it has a huge freelancer workforce (second in the world), in excess of 15 million professionals. [Colliers, 2017] These two factors put together, presents a potential demand for more than 3.5-4 million seats.

According to some of the published white papers, by 2016 more than 160,000 people were using several thousand co working spaces in the United States and Europe. According to the organization, in five years' time, more than one million people will be using 12,000 co working spaces globally. Similarly, another survey showed that by 2019, 72% of participants are forecasted with an increase in their income [Spreitzer, Gretchen, Bacevice, 2015]. According to a study by JLL, India, is expected to receive $400 million in investments by 2018 in the co working segment. Consequently, 40-50% increase is expected by 2019 in the segment.