Stanza Living bets big on India’s co-living demand

Delhi-based Stanza Living on Wednesday said it has launched customised co-living facilities for working professionals. Starting with a total of 10,000-bed capacity across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Coimbatore, it will be a separate business vertical for the student accommodation provider. The startup plans to invest Rs 150 crore to ramp up its new business.

The company claims that the new business category was developed after 10 months of research and planning, including interviews with 3,000 graduating students, entry-level working professionals, and property owners. “The insights gathered on their lifestyle requirements have been used to create a customised shared living space for migrant working professionals,” the company said, adding that in 2019, over 20 million Indians migrated domestically in search of better career opportunities.

The company is also exploring residence-partner engagement with over 15 companies for its working professional accommodation business.

“After building India’s largest student living company and successfully catering to student requirements across 10 cities, we feel this is the appropriate time to foray into the working professional category. Like our student offering, we have invested in understanding the nuanced needs of working professionals and will be launching a separate product offering designed for their lifestyle requirements,” Anindya Dutta, managing director and co-founder, Stanza Living.

Shared living, including student housing, is highly fragmented and unorganised in India. According to real estate consultancy firm Anarock Property Consultants: of the 37 million students pursuing higher education in India, more than 75% live away from home. Existing hostel facilities can accommodate only 18%-20% of this migrant student population.

Stanza Living, which was started by Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta in 2017, will continue to expand its presence across new and existing markets in the student housing space. The startup currently has a total inventory of 55,000 beds, including accommodation for students and working professionals.

“Our foray into the working professionals category follows the journey of our student consumers. As they graduate and become potential migrant working professionals, we want to continue delivering an aspirational lifestyle solution adaptable to their evolving needs, wherever they migrate,” said Sandeep Dalmia, managing director and co-founder, Stanza Living.

Since the untapped opportunity is huge, the past two years have seen a clutch of startups becoming active. Oxfordcaps, Tribe, Placio, and Campus Students Communities are some of the major players in the student accommodation business. Launched in October 2018, the fully managed housing rental service, OYO Life, the co-living vertical from hospitality chain OYO currently operates beds across nine cities—Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata.

With the rise of discretionary spending and a tech-savvy young population, co-living housing startups are looking to make the most of it by providing fully furnished, fully maintained, and Internet-ready accommodation with services such as 24-hour mess and transport, say experts.