Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, the national and international economic conditions have gone unstable. The business have got into a spiral of making efficient business operations and controlling cash flow mismanagement due to a very fundamental change in demand and supply mismatch. The product and services which were high on priority have slipped in the pecking order. Though the current situation is putting pressure on short-to-medium term outlook, the fundamental diverse culture of our country with major proportion of young population shall pull up the long-term prospective on a upward trajectory.
With the current so called the new normal, few fundamental trends are emerging. The biggest contributor and user of these trends are millennials and corporate workforce. These are:
- High focus on hygiene factor and personal and working areas
- Work from home is becoming a reality
- Re-looking at expenditure patterns
- Redefining work efficiencies by use of technology
The real estate sector which is one of the largest segments in country’s economic contribution, cannot remain isolated and needs to think on restructuring with the current emerging needs. Certain asset classes like commercial and residential space are currently facing a downward pressure in terms of sales and prices. However, the mushrooming sector like co-living have a great fundamental and requires some bit of restructuring.
India has been a vast millennial population and promising fundamental outlook. This segment of population, which is a very higher percentage of the over country population, have a redefined lifestyle like:
- Extended bachelorhood
- Believe living as an experience of services at affordable prices
- Flexible and more productive hours
- Dedicated working spaces along with living space
Moreover, with the current new normal, there are various signs which are favoring this segment include no capital investment, affordable rentals, no maintenance, and shorter lock-ins and penalties. With the current pandemic wherein there is no or less future growth in income in the near future, the co-living is expected to be favored by the young and corporate, students, IT professionals, etc. However, apart from the basic characteristics of this asset class, certain priorities have emerged like sanitization and mainlining high hygiene levels, various services at affordable prices like wifi/convenient shopping/groceries services, hygienic meals availability at affordable prices, safety, common usable areas like library, play area where they can connect with like-minded people.
Thus, not only in the current short-term situation, but in the long-term, the co-living segment have a promising outlook with certain customization over the course of time.