With the return to office gaining ground, co-living operator Settl on October 10 said it will add 1,000 beds to expand its business in Hyderabad to meet the rising demand from working professionals.
The company said its target is to touch 3,500 beds by March 2023.
"With the return to office picking up, the demand for managed rented accommodation has significantly increased. All our centres in Hyderabad are doing very well. We will be adding 1,000 more beds by end of FY2023," said Settl Co-Founder Abhishek Tripathi.
Settl's Bengaluru headquarters already operates five co-living facilities in Hyderabad with a total of 300 beds. The centres are situated close to the tech clusters of Hyderabad's Madhapur, Gachibowli, and Jubilee Hills. At present, the beds are priced between Rs 9,000 and Rs 12,000 per month.
The organisation, which was founded in 2020, has 1,500 beds as of right now, with 900 of those in Bengaluru and 300 each in Hyderabad and Gurugram.
Settl had halted its expansion plans as the co-living market begins to bounce back from the setbacks brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Settl takes properties from builders and asset owners on a long-term lease and then sub-leases the space to working professionals. Its facilities offer a combination of co-living, community living, and co-working options. Nearly 90 percent of the residents are working adults between the ages of 25 and 35.
Due to the pandemic, there is a higher demand for private rooms from business people who value hygiene and seclusion.
Settl has begun preliminary rounds of discussions with possible investors to obtain additional capital for the business' expansion. The company has so far raised $5,00,000 from investors including ah! Ventures and We Founder Circle.
Previously investment management company Colliers said in a report that the co-living segment is expected to have 450,000 beds by 2024, mainly in the organised sector, more than double from 210,000 beds at the end of 2021,
Occupancy in most co-living facilities crossed 45-50 percent between December 2020 and March 2021 and 60-70 percent in Q4 of 2021. However, the second wave proved to be a dampener and occupancy dipped sharply from Q2, Colliers said in the whitepaper titled ‘Future of Co-living in India’.
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