Co-living, one of the most viable ways for future, say experts

The first edition of ‘Co-living Convene’, hosted by Zolo, reportedly saw a sizeable gathering of builders, architects, property owners, international property consultants and real estate agents from the city. A new ecosystem for living in the future is being propelled by Zolo. The panel discussion titled, ‘The present and future of co-living’ was found to be informative and absorbing.

“Co-living is one of the most viable and sustainable ways of living that we can create for the future,” said Nikhil Sikri, co-founder and CEO, Zolo. He also said the co-living market size is estimated to touch $13.92 billion by 2025, surging from the current $6.67 billion, across the country’s top 30 cities.

The builders who were present at the event, unanimously acknowledged this paradigm shift. In their view, business had not been affected badly, but had grown positively as “the right decision at the right time” had been taken.

According to industry estimates, thousands of housing units are unsold and lying vacant across several cities in the country. This could be attributed to three big reasons which include a societal shift among the consumers who no longer have ownership as priority, mistrust that owners have of tenants and lack of innovation on the part of builders. This deadlock can be resolved by reinventing the business model and going for the co-living option, it was observed.

Ajit Kumar Chordia, MD, Olympia Group, Ranjeeth Rathod, MD, DRA Group, Jaggannathan, MD, Ramaniyam, Mehul Doshi, director, Doshi Housing, K Shivashankar, principal architect, Eskay Design, Nikhil Sikri, CEO, Zolo and Mridula Shivashankar, architect, Eskay Design participated. Sanjay Chugh, city head and senior VP, Anarock, moderated the discussion.