In the last couple of years, India has observed rapid growth in the number of international and domestic companies foraying into flexible workspaces. The share of flexible workspace or co-working office leasing has also witnessed rise over the period. Sensing the need of an aggregator that can aggregate and display available co-working space for end-users, Savills PLC, an international real estate advisor listed on London Stock Exchange, is planning to launch a flexible work space platform. “We are already operating such platforms successfully in seven countries like the US, the UK, Europe and Singapore. Many more are in the pipeline. The platform aggregates all the available flexible work space or co-working space in a market and then allows the occupiers to select the right space," said J Mark Ridley, global chief executive officer, Savills. Ridley believes that Indian office market has huge growth potential and there is high demand for modern office spaces. The platform may help corporate, start-up, freelancers and others looking for flexible workspace to locate the best feasible options available in the desired location or city. Savills started its operation in India couple of years back as a real estate consultant and has plans to expand its presence and services. At present, the company has offices in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai and will open offices in Pune and Hyderabad next month. In addition to launching flexible workspace platform, Savills is on the verge of launching an international desk in India as part of its residential business, which will offer international properties from across the world to high-net-worth individuals in India. “We believe that there is significant amount of capital in the hands of individuals and investors who are keen and rightfully should be going out and making investments in other parts of the world," said Anurag Mathur, chief executive officer, Savills India. “Government has been very liberal with the remittance of foreign exchange and given the fact that Savills has a great real estate platform internationally, we will start the services in India very soon," added Mathur. The Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) allows resident individuals to remit up to $250,000 per financial year. This money can be used to buy immovable properties in overseas market. “There are lots of opportunities within this budget in the international market and if there are four members in the family, they can jointly remit about $10,00,000, which will open many more options. One can even consider buying for investment purposes; in many locations rental yields are also very attractive," said Mathur.
Savills is planning to launch a flexible workspace aggregation platform in India, seeking to serve the rapidly growing market in the country. The global real estate service provider already operates flexible workspace aggregation platforms in seven countries including the US, UK, Europe and Singapore, and has plans to add more.