Flexing at Work!

28 Aug 2023 CW Team

In 2022, India crossed 45 million sq ft of commercial leasing, a milestone for the country, especially given the two years preceding it. Within that demand, there has been a significant increase in leasing activities for flex spaces. While coworking and flexible workspace management companies accounted for around 7 to 9 per cent of overall commercial leasing in India two years ago, today they account for 17 to 19 per cent. Compared to the pre-COVID period, the outsourced office market is witnessing a significant uptick in demand for flexible workspaces as companies continue to show reluctance towards capex spends on non-core activities. So it is no surprise that given our population and workforce, India is the second-largest market for flexible workspaces in the Asia Pacific (APAC), second only to China. Recognising the opportunity, Simpliwork Offices partnered with Salarpuria Sattva to establish the company in 2018. Currently one of India’s largest outsourced office providers, it designs and builds fully furnished, customised workspaces. To learn what makes this market such a lucrative proposition,

CW’s R SRINIVASAN spoke to Ajay Alur, COO….

What prompted you to establish a startup based on the flex office space segment?

The need for outsourced office space started getting felt about seven to eight years ago. Primarily, the category was created by the global launch of coworking spaces and grew to become a major trend. Typically, mid to large enterprises were averse to shared spaces due to concerns of data, network and employee security, among others. However, they would be open to dedicated spaces if they were given a certain amount of flexibility in the way they operated the facility. This solution was missing in the market and resulted in the inception of Simpliwork to address this gap.

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