DNA Money Edit: Organised co-living segment gaining traction

Co-working spaces market has attracted a lot of investments and continues to expand. Now, co-living business is gaining traction and promises to be a huge market as the millennial population are increasingly preferring this way of their 'homely' life in different cities they keep hopping on.

A survey showed that 56% of millennials are willing to consider co-living spaces for their accommodation needs. In the 18-23 years age group, 72% were willing to consider this option for accommodation, while in the age bracket of 24-29 years, 56% respondents were inclined towards it.

Hence, other than affordable and mid-segment housing in the real estate sector, evolving segments such as student housing and co-living are increasingly attracting investors. With a millennial population of over 400 million, these housing models hold significant potential in the Indian market.

It will not be a surprise if co-living becomes a template for future housing in metro cities, especially where college passouts and youth gets employed on a large scale.

Co-living is an extension of "paying guest" or an apartment where multiple individuals reside and divide the expenses including rental. This old, tried and tested concept is now being formalised by companies and developers.

As cities are becoming denser and housing costs continue to rise, more developers are looking to co-living as a way to pack more people into smaller homes than ever. In fact, even institutional funds have started investing part of their money into this segment that will only go on to become as big an industry as "co-working" has witnessed over the last half-a-decade.