Chennai: Since the inception of the co-working culture concept, there has been a rapid expansion of flexible office space in most coveted locations across the country, driving organisations towards a more decentralised structure.
Flexible workspace provider, The Executive Centre’s South Asia Group managing director, Nidhi Marwah, elaborates about the market and the recent trends.
Excerpts from the interview:
What is TEC and what does it do?
The Executive Centre (TEC) is Asia’s premium flexible workspace provider with over 135+ Centres in 32 cities and 14 countries across Greater China, Southeast Asia, North Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and the Middle East. It is the third largest serviced office business in Asia with annual turnover in excess of US $275 million. TEC entered India in 2008 with its first property in Mumbai and at present, we have around 36+ centres in India spread over eight lakh square feet with a capacity of 8,000 desks, across major cities.
Being present in 14 countries, what is the current scenario of this sector?
The flex workspace scenario serves as a new staple diet for the office space category. We are noticing companies changing the way they take up space and adopting a flex-and-core strategy, which is a model that can be tailored to suit the size and needs of the organisation as we move into a ‘new normal’. We have clients such as Facebook, Salesforce, Gartner among others with us, and have recorded 30 percent growth annually in Asia Pacific, including India. So the segment looks very promising with steady growth.
What is the present status in Chennai?
In a city like Chennai, majority of companies utilised co-working spaces as a temporary fix for a period of 3-6 months. Many organisations had regional offices in Chennai, but very few head offices. Now, with the changing nature of the industry, premium workspace providers have started noticing long term opportunities tapping on the underlying potential of the market. The lock-in periods have significantly gone up in this past one year. With an average of three years or more, more of them are ready to make long term investments.
How does 2021 look for the flexible workspace markets?
We as a company, are bullish on the demand for flexible office space post COVID-19 pandemic as corporates will look to cut capital expenditure on setting up their own offices. This leads us to believe that most companies will take on a hybrid model with a flexible structure, one that allows for a mix of time in the office and at home. We see privacy and convenience taking precedence and greater convenience and efficiency through technology to support productivity. More importantly, the current disruption has made low density floor plans an important criteria to maintain safe social distancing. Low density floor plans have been a long standing quality SOP for The Executive Centre, which has made it easier and more cost effective for us to implement safety norms in our spaces.