Co-working space cos stick to expansion plans | Economic Times

Managed office space providers are continuing with their expansion plans even during the second Covid wave, expecting an increase in demand as more cost conscious companies explore a hybrid office model in the future and tier 2 and 3 cities offer new opportunities.Companies like Awfis, Smartworks, ABL Workspaces and MyBranch, Incuzpace say pan India plans are on track and they are aggressively targeting tier 2 and 3 cities as majority of the workforce has shifted to these places.82848426“Owing to the current work-from-home situation, many employees are operating from their hometowns in tier 2 and 3 cities,” said Amit Ramani, CEO and founder of Awfis and vice president at Indian Workspace Association. “Companies too are looking at distributed workspace models that allow employees to work near home/work from anywhere out of a professionally managed work set up. As a result, there has been a significant upsurge in the demand for flexible workspace options in tier 2 and 3 cities with many working professionals looking out for shared workspace options.”Premium co-working space provider ABL Workspaces, which operates close to 2,500 seats in Delhi-NCR, plans to reach 15,000 seats by 2021-22.“Our aim is to identify the client first and then look for space for him,” said Akshita Gupta, co-founder and CMO of ABL Workspaces. “We have recently leased 250 seats to Unacademy in Greater Kailash following the same model.”Awfis said the increase in demand for co-working set ups in tier 2 cities has accelerated its expansion plans. In the next six months, the company aims to have a total of 10-12% of seat capacity in smaller cities. Awfis recently opened a new centre in Indore, and plans to enter new markets like Lucknow, Kochi and Jaipur soon.