“Co-living can create intellectual conglomeration”

Discussing the new concept of shared housing, Rohit Kapoor, CEO, New Real Estate Business, OYO, responds to Ambarin Chougle and elaborates on the design of co-living spaces to live an inspired life. He also share about his vision to encourage community building and generate meaningful conversation through this venture

Tell us about your brand?
OYO LIFE is based on the philosophy that housing is an essential component of life and influences and inspires how you live your life. OYO LIFE is targeted at millennials and young professionals in search of fully managed homes on long-term rentals, at affordable prices. Under this category, OYO offers end-to-end managed, comfortable, high-quality living experience that eliminates the hassles of finding, accessing and managing everyday housing. Staying at an OYO LIFE property starts as low as INR 7999 (in some cases, depending on the location and size of the room in terms of sharing – prices can be as low as 5999) per bed, per month for a fully managed shared living space. We also help our residents save on brokerage, lock-in periods, and the hassle of searching house helps and support services involved while moving to a new residence.

What is the design palette of your co-living space like?
These co- living spaces are carefully curated keeping in mind the preferences of the young and ‘always-on’ generation, with a focus on comfort and convenience. The design of OYO LIFE’s spaces has been customised according to the needs of the millenials and is meant to encourage conversations, break-out spaces and an opportunity to be a part of a community.

We firmly believe that one of the most exciting things about co-living in the modern context is that it can create intellectual conglomeration. If people can live in an environment where they can engage in meaningful conversations, then it adds value to the overall living condition. Hence, we keep this factor in mind while designing our OYO LIFE properties to facilitate community building and encourage dialogue among co-residents.

Tell me about the size and the layout of the project? What are the amenities you offer your tenants?
OYO LIFE’s brand proposition is that we take care of everything that comes with shared housing. With OYO LIFE, a customer has to only move in with their bags into a private room that’s part of a larger shared home that includes furniture, utilities, thoughtfully designed spaces, scheduled and on-demand cleaning and maintenance. OYO LIFE is a truly a ready-to-move-in and hassle-free living experience that comes without the liability of long-term financial deposits or upfront furnishing costs.

OYO LIFE accommodation provides essential amenities like Wi-Fi connectivity, television, regular housekeeping, power backup, CCTV surveillance, and 24/7 caretaking. Residents also have access to OYO Support at all times, at no additional cost over the monthly rental charges. These living spaces are carefully curated keeping in mind the preferences of the young and ‘always on’ generation, with a focus on comfort and convenience, so that these young creative minds can pursue their personal passions. We furnish the place, we clean the place, we fix things when they break, we track all the bills, and hence we ensure that all you have to do is just move in and start living.

Can you elaborate on the vibe of your co-living properties?
Our OYO LIFE properties offer a sense of community for on-the-go millennials. We are cognizant of the fact that many people, especially youngsters now recognize that being on the screen all the time is unsatisfying and need to form connections where they live. Keeping this in mind, we organise a lot of community activities for the residents staying at our OYO LIFE properties during festivals, organize cricket and football matches, movie screenings which helps the millennial generation to overcome loneliness in a new city and encourage conversations among themselves. We also have game zones and break-out zones as well for the residents.

What is the USP of your label?
Most players in the market are focused on solving only a few parts of this problem. They are either operating as marketplaces that offer furnished housing options or as discovery platforms where you can find co-living shared homes without having to go via a broker.

Unlike other players in the industry, we are not a discovery platform for properties. We work with large developers and independent asset owners to take over an entire building or tower or an independent house. We are the only player in the long term rental space offering 100% end to end fully managed independent residential units, inclusive of contracting, furnishing, cleaning, maintenance, and in-stay services. Each accommodation will also provide essential amenities like Wi-Fi connectivity, television, regular housekeeping, power backup, CCTV surveillance, and 24/7 caretaking.

OYO LIFE’s brand proposition is that we take care of everything that comes with shared housing. With OYO LIFE, a customer has to only move in with their bags into a private room that’s part of a larger shared home that includes furniture, utilities, thoughtfully designed spaces, scheduled and on-demand cleaning and maintenance.

We furnish the place, we clean the place, we fix things when they break, we track all the bills, and hence we ensure that all you have to do is just move in and start living. OYO LIFE is a truly a ready-to-move-in and hassle-free living experience that comes without the liability of long-term financial deposits or upfront furnishing costs.

What is your current portfolio and future plans?
Since its launch in October 2018, OYO LIFE has more than 350 buildings, 17,000 live beds and is adding 3000+ new beds every month making it one of the largest businesses for branded fully-managed housing for millennials globally. We are currently witnessing nearly 85-90% occupancy (matured buildings) with 95% of the folks renewing their stay and choosing us as the preferred stay option.

Currently, OYO LIFE is present in 4 cities in India – Bengaluru, Noida, Gurgaon and Pune. We plan to enter into four new cities by the end of this quarter. Overall, we have set an ambitious target of 100,000 beds in India by the end of 2019. This will make us the largest player in the end-to-end co-living segment globally. We are positive that co-living is going to be the next big wave in India that will alter the real estate landscape, and OYO LIFE will be a big contributing factor to that development.

OYO LIFE In October 2018, OYO forayed into the co-living segment with OYO LIFE. Under this category, OYO offers end-to-end managed, comfortable, high-quality living experience that eliminates the hassles of finding, accessing and managing everyday housing.