Harsh Binani on Consolidation in the Flexible Workspaces

Harsh Binani is the co-founder of the largest flex space provider Smartworks. He joined Smartworks in 2017, with the dedication to bring vibrant, flexible, and aesthetic office experience to India. He has witnessed the dull walls, long line of desks, and low employee productivity contradicting the flexibility provided by the offices overseas. Harsh Binani along with Neetish Sarda worked passionately on the idea of Smartworks with an aim to disrupt traditional workspaces. 

Though, the transition from the co-working space providers to bring in the concept of Managed office spaces to the light was not an easy one. Harsh Binani has shared the challenges of introducing a new concept to the big tycoons on various occasions, but the absolute faith in the vision of Smartworks always boosted their confidence.

Today, Smartworks is India’s largest managed workspace provider with more than 31 centers and a presence in 9 key cities, with an aim to expand at an exponential rate on a global level. Harsh Binani believes that when the whole real estate market came to a halt with industries facing losses, Smartwork's initial decision to pitch large enterprises paid off well. Under the able leadership of Harsh Binani, Smartworks not only just survived but was profitable. Harsh Binani believes that emerging concepts such as “Work near Home” are bringing in a surge of opportunities for the workspace providers like Smartworks. 

Not just start-ups but also companies are adopting flexible working in India's coworking market, which is developing at a breakneck speed. According to some estimates, the country has around 300 coworking players. According to CBRE, India's entire flexible space stock expanded by over 50% from 10 million square feet in 2017 to around 15 million square feet in the third quarter of 2018. In the first quarter of 2019, take-up jumped by 277 percent, to nearly 2.9 million square feet, compared to the same period the previous year. There is a trend toward consolidation, as the market cannot accommodate 300 operators.