Hyderabad: Amsterdam-born co-working space provider by International Workspace Group is looking to increase its footprint in Hyderabad. It now operates co-working spaces under the brand Regus here and is working with real estate developers to launch its new brand Spaces shortly here, according to Harsh Lambah, Country Manager – India, IWG. “We are working and negotiating with real estate developers to launch Space soon in Hyderbad. We are hoping that things will take some shape in coming four months,” he said. Regus now has eight workspaces in Hyderabad. Nationally, it is present 16 cities and has about 120 workspaces. Each cluster has about 120-150 seats. “We are looking to double our capacity in about 36 months. The focus is Hitec City and Gachibowli areas, which house many office clusters,” he said. The company follows multiple models for getting new commercial space into its inventory from developers. The rent, according to Lambah, depends on factors like access, proximity to work clusters and the number of seats being taken and duration of stay. On the client mix, he said about 50 per cent of the seats are taken up by large enterprises and about 30 per cent by MSME segment. The remaining are taken by startups, which typically stay for six to eight months before they increase the number of seats or move to a bigger place. “We see some consolidation happening in the co-working space. Also, new players are coming into the market, which will enlarge choices for customers. There has been a muted growth in the segment last year but now that is improving as supply is also on the rise. We will look to add inventory own addition, acquisitions as well as through franchisees. That will see a big investment,” he said. “Co-working and collaborative working has taken the world by storm and Hyderabad is no exception. More companies are getting increasingly concerned about employee motivation and productivity and are embracing the co-working concept,” he said adding that demand is rising due to better landing costs, services, office administration and use of technology. The Hyderabad office space segment, once dominated by technology companies, is now also witnessing leasing by non-IT companies like BFSI, consultancy business, telecom, healthcare, biotech, real estate construction, e-commerce, education institutes and co-working service providers, he said. Hitec City, Kukatpally, Begumpet and Gachibowli are seeing maximum commercial real estate growth and are optimum for co-working. “The co-working segment in Hyderabad accounted for six per cent of the total office leasing in 2018. It was five per cent in 2017,” he said. A Knight Frank report said that co-working space providers in top eight cities including Hyderabad have taken up around 4 million sqft of office space during first six months this year. This is about 42 per cent growth increase over the same period previous year. Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on WhatsApp / Telegram everyday. Click these links to subscribe and save this number 9182563636 on your contacts. Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter
IWG is planning to launch its Spaces brand in Hyderabad in the next three years. Sister brand Regus has eight locations in the city and is present in a further 15 cities. It intends doubling its capacity in the country over the next four months.