Alternative living solutions for India’s millennials
BENGALURU:Many millennials, those in their 20s and early 30s, comprising outstation students and young professionals, need a place to stay when they move out of their parental nest.
A slew of startups are capitalising on this opportunity, offering young adults co-living facilities, an alternative to moving in with room mates or renting a small pad. Co-living facilities offer a private living space and combine it with shared facilities such as laundry, gym, Wi-fi, common kitchen, cleaners among others. Just like co-working spaces have provided entrepreneurs with the flexibility and affordability they need, shared living is set to change the way millennials live in our cities with ever increasing rents and poor quality of accomodation. For someone in his first job, with a monthly takehome salary of ₹30,000-40,000 and living away from their home, shared living is a more secure, cheaper and quicker alternative solution than buying or renting a house. It is also a better managed set-up, with more amenities, than the generic paying guest facility.
Co-living spaces with a community-like experience, student housing and even family rental solutions are rapidly picking up in cities such as Bengaluru, Pune and DelhiNCR, which are preferred by higher education students and single professionals from other states to study and work in. Currently, an estimated 16.8 million sq. ft rental portfolio is with Nestaway, across Bengaluru, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad and Mumbai and earns over $4 million (₹26 crore) in monthly rentals.