Co-living is a completely new kind of modern housing trend wherein people, especially young professionals live together in one space. These spaces have popped up in response to the huge number of young people aged between 20-30 years, which have migrated to the big mega cites in search of work. Co-living is the trend of living with other people with the same interest, intentions, and values. It is built on the values of openness and collaboration.

This kind of housing is based on the sharing economy. Each member will have his/her own bedroom and bathroom but will have to share the kitchen, living room, balcony, and other common spaces. Co-living spaces are proving out to be more economical in nature compared to traditional rented houses as the residents living together in a Co-living space share all the household expenses. The prices of Co-living spaces will differ from city to city, but one thing is for certain- it will always be less than traditional rental houses. As some of the landowners in the megacities of India charge as much as 10 months advance rent as a security deposit; it becomes impossible for some young professionals to pay such exorbitant rent.

The number of co-living establishment is going to double up in the future. For those who are working as remote workers, co-living is proving to be the ideal situation to work and live. Other advantages of co-living include reduced financial burden, community support and a sense of belonging. Co-living spaces solve many problems that young professionals and students especially millennials face when they move to a new city.

Landowners make them sign one-year contracts, failing to abide by the contract leads to the complete takeover of the security deposit by the landowners; a situation to which the Indian government is doing nothing about it and probably not aware of it either. Landowners of traditional rental houses and apartments impose inhuman rules on its tenants, often overbearing for an adult individual such as – strict time curfew, no friends or family members allowed to stay over, only vegetarian food allowed inside the premises, strict no to drinking and smoking and many more such trivial issues.

A large number of private companies are expanding in this market space offering clean and hygienic accommodations at affordable prices without the need of giving security deposit and a college-like atmosphere for the working youth. There are now hundreds of co-living spaces of all shapes and sizes around tier I cities of India. Zolo stays one of India’s largest providers of co-living spaces is trying to stand out in this market already and has more than 50 co-living spaces in the city of Bangalore alone. Co-living startups have enabled the users to do everything with the help of apps from booking of the accommodation to add services; a huge advantage which the traditional landowners cannot provide.

Startups such as Zolo, NestaAway, and Stanza Living have been in this market space for some years now in India. India’s largest hotel room stay OYO recently joined its foray with OYO Living which was renamed as OYO Life in February 2019. OYO is mainly targeting millennial students and young workers. According to OYO’s Chief Growth Officer Kaviruth: “To target millennials, we have features such as work-from-home desks, and yoga and meditation zones”. He further adds “Therefore, there are additional features such as work-from-home desks, yoga and meditation zones, face -time and Skype corners, and independent lockers”.

Bangalore- based Co-living company NestAway founder Jitendra Jagades says “Our (co-living) rentals in Bengaluru averages between 6,000 and 10,000 for a room, but it can also go up to 20,000. In Mumbai, a single room’s rental can be as high as 40,000." He says prices vary in real-time and that NestAway has taken years to develop a platform that tracks it. NestAway is the oldest player in the co-living space in India. It is present across 12 cities and currently beds 55,000 tenants. Similarly, Zolo another prominent player in the co-living space in India is spread across 8 cities and beds 18,000 tenants in the co-living space.

Indians have welcomed the sharing economy with open arms. Co-riding has already become very popular with OLA and Uber pool. Co-working spaces are increasing in number too. With such developments, co-living spaces are also growing at a very fast rate. These co-living spaces have the potential to make oppressive landowners run out of business.