Another new player, Workeasy Space Solutions, has entered the co-working spaces market in Chennai. The Chennai head-quartered firm, has leased 1 lakh sq. ft. each on Rajiv Gandhi Salai (Old Mahabalipuram Road) and Anna Salai (Mount Road). Additional space of 73,000 sq. ft. has also been taken in Guindy, thereby covering all the micro markets in the city.
According to the founders of Workeasy Space Solution (known by its acronym WorkEZ), Anil Reddy and Sunil Reddy, the company already has three closures amounting to 500 plus seats so far, from IT start-up firms. “We are seeing good traction for all the locations so far. We have noticed mostly IT companies are interested in the IT corridor, OMR. Various other sectors like healthcare,shipping, finance and e-publishing are interested in the central business district and Guindy,” they said and added that clients are acknowledging the value of being in a co-working space compared to a traditional space.
The firm is considering opening facilities in tier-2 cities as well. Plans are also on the anvil for expansion in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Real estate players in Chennai point out that over the next two years, Chennai will see its number of co-working spaces double. A market study by by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) shows that the cumulative space take-up by the co working segment from 2017 to the first quarter of 2019 is approximately over 9 million sq.ft. Chennai has been leading the pack in terms of absorption when compared to other cities. Co-working space absorption has contributed close to 22% of the city’s absorption which is pegged at 6.2 million sq.ft. in 2019.
Research by ANAROCK (a real estate services company), reveals that office space absorption in the top seven cities stood at over 40 million sq. ft. in 2019, of which Chennai accounted for nearly 2.6 million sq. ft. Of this total office space leased in the city, approximately 20% was in the co-working segment.