Transforming the way millennials live

Realty+ in conversation with Deepak Anand, Founder & CEO, Housr. Housr’s aggressive plans to disrupt the co-living market in India and cities of operations Housr is here to change the way millennials live. It is a large-scale operator of properties, which creates experiences, fosters communities through state-of-the-art technology enabled co-living spaces. Today’s co-living market, although thriving, is not able to provide community experience to the residents. What is currently available in the market is just bed and breakfast with no focus on community. The market is still running on a paying-guest kind of model that is being called co-living. Housr will be the first player in the Indian market that will provide a true co-living experience. We are confident about doing this as we are providing mega co-living spaces. In this model, we lease the entire building and convert it into a Housr run property rather than run fragmented apartments. This mega model enables us to provide bigger communities and better experiences, which are unseen in India at the moment. Since our inception in Jan 2019, we have been working on building a strong supply of co-living spaces. We have already locked in 10,000+ beds. By August, we would have launched 3 properties across Gurgaon and Greater Noida to start with, followed by 3-4 more properties across Kota, Bangalore and Mumbai.   The game-changing value proposition to set the industry benchmark and address the need gap in the market There is a need for true quality spaces, which is possible only through an aggregated model. The traditional rental system for renting homes is broken. Most properties are not available for rent to single millennials and the ones that are available provide low to no services and communities. Millennials today are demanding a better quality of life and better experiences and almost every other industry, whether it is food and beverage, entertainment, travel or fashion, is providing them with high level of products and services, except for the home rentals sector. It is this big gaping hole that we are trying to fill. Housr can deliver the kind of amenities, which the millennials want. What we are offering is fundamentally very different from other players present in the market, both in terms of product design and service offerings. Each of our properties will have between 500-1500 residents. This gives us unparalleled economies of scale, never seen before services and experiences and a great way to live for millennials. Our secret sauce lies in identifying and aggregating large properties and turning them into superior social hubs conducive for co-living.   The business landscape for co-living Much of the traditional housing debate is focused on the challenges related to housing quality, security, choice, space standards and design. Co-living addresses all these points and more apart from its unique selling point that it can foster a lasting sense of community among diverse residents. It is more than just people staying together in a flat or a building. It is an attempt to create a conscious community that can live a sustainable lifestyle, by sharing the resources and the space provided to them. Co-living is all about sharing a place with like-minded people, where one can benefit from being part of a working community by getting inspired by others. In a world where people are increasingly engaged in virtual socializing, co-living spaces help keep it real. These spaces try to get the balance between privacy and social interaction right. The growth of the sharing economy and the rise of co-working, impact hubs and other forms of collaboration suggests there is an appetite for greater sharing and social engagement and some would say co-living is part of this trend. As society ages, the need to live together differently (and more communally) will only grow. Till date co-living spaces have not been able to address this need adequately due to the lack of scale which is what Housr aims to address. The mega-community of driven and likeminded individuals will get the right conversation going and create awareness about the concept and the brand. At Housr, we firmly believe that the modern shared accommodation is the future of living driven by thriving shared economy coupled with a largely young demographic. We believe collaborative consumption has become a global trend, and India is no exception.   The target audience for the offering Housr is all for the Millennials—the ones who are starting out their jobs in new cities, the ones who have migrated to new cities and working already, the young students. Our belief is that with a thriving shared economy concept coupled with largely young demographics, the modern shared accommodation is the future. Collaborative consumption has become a global trend, and India is no exception. The massive millennial population is optimizing the use of shared assets to unlock higher value. The younger consumers are increasingly attracted to sharing because of variety, access to better products and services, economic benefits and ability to have a unique experience, which has led to the emergence and rise of various industries such as shared transportation, shared media services, among others. Housr will provide shared living spaces propelled by highly mobile millennials who prefer to lead an asset light living while enjoying the desired lifestyle.   Future expansion plans  Over the course of the next 12-18 months, we plan to expand our India footprint to 50,000+ beds and 20 properties by entering markets such as Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Kota, Chandigarh, Hyderabad & Chennai in addition to our existing markets of Gurgaon and Noida.