Co-living sector trends: Sanitised, safer homes to propel in 2021
There’s barely anything that has so collectively changed our lives than the year 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s changed how we live, interact, work, socialize, earn, and even eat outside the confines of our safe spaces, our homes.
The impact on the housing sector has been immense – real estate goes unsold, PGs, and homes on rent are vacant, affiliated sectors like interior design, movers and packers, and the like. As lockdowns, job losses, and remote workspaces, sent millions back to their home towns; it’s led to a large-scale reinvention in one sector – co-living spaces in India, primarily catering to the urban migrant workforce.
So, how would 2021 unfold for the co-living sector, pegged at $7 billion in 2020? Here are five trends which we foresee in the year ahead:
1. Sanitisation and safety
The pandemic put a sharp spotlight on the need for hygiene and sanitation for living spaces. One of the primary pulls for premium co-living areas would be the extent of healthy and sanitisation support they provide.
These include trained staff, norms for social distancing, periodic sanitisation and access to medical support. Ishtara, for instance, is pegging doctors on call and regular sanitisation for common areas.
2. Individual attention
Individual attention, a customised, personalised space is the biggest draw for co-living at this point, though it may seem contrary to the concept of community living.
Co-living in 2021 must crack these dual needs, especially when it comes to the health needs of their patrons. This includes monitoring COVID-19 status for patrons, attending to their medical conditions and appealing to their tastes during their stay. They would even be prepared to pay more, to gain separate beds and seating spaces.
3. Target a more expansive audience
While remote working and learning have cut down on the need for accommodation in TIER 1 cities, co-living needs to explore more customers.
These can include medical tourists (especially around big hospital centres), short-term renters and subscription-based plans, which can accommodate business or sales travellers in different cities.
4. Diversify to TIER 2 hubs, accommodation centres
While the market for co-living in TIER 1 cities may take time to emerge to their pre-pandemic levels, 2021 may seem market leaders explore setting up such centres in TIER II towns and cities.
They can also tie in to provide remote office hubs for the urban migrants in nearby districts, offering amenities like WiFi, office space, meeting spaces and other amenities which usually are not available in these regions.
5. Boost for organised co-living
Despite companies like Zoho, Ishtara Stanza Life, CoHo, Oyo Life and others, accommodation for the working commuter populace has been a fragmented market, with multiple PGs and homes providing living spaces. 2021 may see this image flip on its head.
The costs for survival in the co-living market have hiked substantially – regular sanitisation, clearly laid out staff protocols, monitoring for guests, social distancing, WiFi and avid promotion that these measures are in place. This, after an economic downturn, is possible only if the companies involved have deep pockets, vis a vis individual PGs or householders.
Co-living successes before the pandemic have proved that this is a trend that’s here to stay. However, the scale of operations in 2021 depends on the learnings that owners have developed through 2020. We hope that the forecasted measures above lead businesses in this sector to better revenues and business performance.
About the author:
Sadiya Khan, Founder, Akund Communications