Co-living Start-up Housr shows disruptive growth amidst challenging market scenario

New Delhi: Housr, India's fastest growing co-living brand, has showcased disruptive growth amidst the ongoing COVID driven challenges in the market. With demand being erratic in the last 12-18 months, the brand put all its focus on creating a robust supply-side growth model and being ready with multiple bespoke properties across key cities catering to millennials (single working professionals/postgraduate students), when the market revives.  During the first wave, Housr developed a win-win model for developers/owners under market driven duress, to partner with the brand and grow together. This led to unprecedented market growth and Housr  continues to see strong demand amongst this growing segment of millennials and young professionals who seek flexibility, value and enriching community experiences. The onset of the second wave only validated this further and Housr added 10 more strategically located, fully aggregated and serviced properties under its umbrella. The demand is primarily driven by working professionals moving back to cities with life returning to normalcy and office spaces opening up gradually. Housr is expecting significant demand coming back in the next few months with the country’s aggressive vaccination drive and COVID appropriate behaviour being followed specially in Tier1 and 2 cities. The main cities where Housr has seen significant growth in the last 12 months are NCR (Northern Capital Region) and Pune. 

Founded by Deepak Anand and Kalpesh Mehta in 2018, and backed by marquee investor Adar Poonawalla (Rising Sun Holdings) and angels Pirojsha Godrej, Abhishek Lodha and  Harsh Patodia; Housr in the next 18-24 months will cover 10+ Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities serving 10,000+ beds across 50+ category A boutique properties. Its experiential accommodation model aims to amalgamate three emerging trends in the rental ecosystem, that is, economy, technology and cultural urban migration. Seeing a drastic shift in people’s living choices that are skewed towards technology and urbanisation, Housr recognises the need for modern living spaces that are conducive to the needs of today’s technologically-savvy professionals. 

Speaking of the exceptional growth trajectory, Deepak Anand, Co-Founder and CEO, Housr, said, “As one of the early movers in the co-living space, we understood that the demand for hygienic and amenity-rich affordable housing in urban environments was going to gradually pick pace once the lockdown is lifted. We did not stop during the lockdown and worked in full capacity to translate our strategies into the desired outcomes. The current situation helped build larger and faster relevance amongst millennials for a safe and hygienic place with like minded community and we became the default brand of choice given our continued focus from day one on the above attributes. The demand was tepid in the initial phase of lockdown and we did witness some exodus but it rebounded back sharply as the situation normalised and in Feb-march 2021 we actually had 90%+ occupancy across our properties. Our idea of aggregated co-living is to focus on the community by bringing millennials together, improve the way they live, keep them engaged over the weekend, tie up with partners across categories such as food, retail, fashion, mobility or whatever is part of the daily life routine of a millennial.”

He further added, “Despite COVID-19 and challenges in the global real estate industry, Housr continues to be supported by a strong base of residents comprising migrant working professionals, expatriates and corporates. It is not only a strong testament to Housr’s operational resilience, but also shows the confidence that property owners have in the unique positioning of our  coliving product.”

Housr has seen tremendous growth in the past year by taking the tech-driven platform they have built around coliving, and applying it to all segments of the residential industry including different dwell unit types, target renters, and locations. It has been able to create economies of scale via this model and has emerged as the only profitable homegrown co-living brand in the country. The company’s vision is to transform the way millennials live by providing high-quality co-living spaces which makes their lives easier, convenient and fulfilling. Designed and managed by millennials for millennials and the millennial-minded, Housr combines creative living spaces with curated social programmes to create a lifestyle environment that supports work, stay and play. 

At present, Housr has 15 properties across NCR and Pune and is aiming to aggressively launch more cities and properties in the next 6-9 months. Housr aims to be India’s largest and fastest growing co-living brand with 10,000+ locked in beds PAN India by 2022.