Sharing is the new hack

New businesses and even established companies are not agonising over leasing costly office spaces any more. The idea of ‘shared working spaces’ is currently on the rise in the city of Bengaluru, thanks to the high value of its real estate. These affordable spaces combine fully equipped work stations with beautifully done interiors and New Age amenities. Imagine finishing up a meeting and walking into the room next door to play Foosball? Who would say no to that?

There are more than 50 co-working spaces that have set ups in Bengaluru. These spaces offer private cabins alongside open workstations and different portions of the floor area allocated to different companies.

Services like high-speech Internet, conference rooms,scanners, printers, power back-up, gaming zones, snoozing zones, cafes, beverages and parking are among the facilities available, sometimes bundled in a package and sometimes at an extra cost.

Rahul Magani, founder of a start-up, says, “Personal offices in Bengaluru burn a hole in your pocket and finding a cost-effective space in the city is difficult enough. At its infancy stage, it is important for the start-up to keep the shedding rate low. A start-up thrives on ideas and feedback so the co-working environment is perfect for it to thrive in. It’s not just about sharing an office. It creates an opportunity for people to network amongst themselves, and even brainstorm for new ideas.”

While, on the one hand, it costs around Rs 20,000 per month to rent a personal office space, on the otherhand, the co-working spaces maybe as or even more expensive but with more amenities being provided for thatprice. Mir Najam, business developer at a high-end co-working space in Bengaluru,observes, “There aregenerally three different levels of rent-outs available. The per-day rent-out costs around Rs 599, themonthly rent-out for a shared space starts from Rs 12,000 and the monthly rent-out for a privatecabin starts from Rs 20,000.”

According to CBRE research, the total footprint of co-working spaces in Bengaluru is close to 4.1million sq. ft. of land. Today, nearly every area has become a hub for a co-working atmosphere.”There’s a good working environment. It’s very exciting because we learn something new from someone new every day. During weekdays, everyone works and helpseach other build networks, and on the weekend, we attend parties or events organised by the co-working company,” saysSomanna Vidyashala, CEO of a company that has been working off a start-up over the last three years.

But there’s a downside to sharing working space too, points out Razi Abbas, who works in a digital marketing company. “Today co-working spaces have become highly commercial. The complete essence of thesespaces was to be driven on innovation. Their job was to breed innovation in some form. But,companies like Apple and other big MNCs use the space and have made it into a broken environment, whereyou cannot sync with each other. It is just an alternative form of rentals now,” he bemoans.

Although, the idea may have a few drawbacks or chinks that need straightening out, such office spaces are definitely in high demand. It’s a market that is growing three timesthe speed of others, say real estate analysts, who also believe it’s a business model that’s here to stay.