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CASE STUDIES
family units to the working and allow bachelors, single women, and flexible housing options is becoming
non-working poor (Cole et al., in some instances, pet owners, to more prevalent as well.” “As more
2016). rent flats” (Times of India, 2018). people migrate and move around
For working professionals, who In Gurugram, “most societies are the world, how can we rethink our
are in the first phase of their shutting doors on single tenants” living arrangements? How will
career, who have migrated as mentioned by a senior official real estate and architects adjust
to a different city from their of Flathood, a brokerage firm. He to the transient global citizen? If
hometown for employment, further adds that “With 75% of people are now more open to share
who are mostly unmarried, who the tenant population in the city their houses on Airbnb, get rides
do quite a bit of job-hopping, being single, there will be a huge with strangers on Uber or Lyft, and
whose job location is mostly not demand-supply gap.” (Times of work from coworking places, then
confined to one place and who India, 2018) To quote one of why not live in a shared communal
cannot afford to buy a house at the founders of Nestaway “Our space?” (Camacho, 2016).
this moment, renting a house is biases in renting are nothing short An article in Hindustan Times
a natural choice (The Guardian, of remarkable too - age, gender, (2018), describes how new
2017). Ordeals that they face marital status, food habits, state age hostels which are serviced
while accessing rental housing of origin, religion, employment apartments have arrived in the
are: a)Highly unorganized status, type of employment, sexual business in Indian cities. Another
and non-informative market orientation, the way they look – it’s article in The Hindu (2018)
(Hammam, 2013); b)Inadequate so long that it is almost going into supports the same in a more
Choices; c) Lack of cosmopolitan the satire space. By doing what we detailed and informative way.
culture (Mishra & Mishra, do today, we are killing aspirations, It also talks about the upcoming
2018); d) Lack of ready to move energy, and faith in reasonableness capital investment in the sector.
options (The Guardian, 2017; e) one home at any given moment. A small group of start-ups,
Hassles to search for services With the developing land costs in namely NestAway, Grabhouse,
like cleaning, cooking, laundry; our urban areas, owning a house Homigo, SquarePlums, and
f) internet connection, etc. and not leasing is not a possibility FellaHomes is ushering a change
(Hindustan Times, 2018); g) for a larger part. Making it harder in this business, ensuring a
Discrimination Issues (Times for inhabitants is out and out bad steady supply of quality rented
of India, 2018); h) Brokerage economics”(Economic Times, houses at affordable prices to
issues (Mishra & Mishra, 2018); 2018). singles and families who flock to
i) Security of Deposit Money The concept of ‘co-housing’ urban centers for study or work.
(Mishra & Mishra, 2018); and dates to Denmark in the 1970s They are also attempting to turn
j) Absence of clear terms and (Larsen, 2019). However, it was housing into a liquid asset class
regulations in rental/ lease in early 2000 when the concept to provide better returns for
agreement (Mishra & Mishra, of co-living started shaping investors. They call themselves
2018). up; and picked up a significant asset management firms or
In Indian cities, discrimination pace by the first half of the home rental firms and take over
presents the greatest challenge last decade (Robinson, 2017). the maintenance of the house,
to the millennial tenants. It is Mariana Camacho explains guarantee rentals, and provide
said that “About 80% of group that “More and more people are easier terms and conditions for
housing and multi-story societies becoming location independent tenants (Mishra & Mishra, 2018).
in Noida and Ghaziabad do not and working remotely both part- This segment has attracted
time and full time. The need for the attention of international
October 2020 Volume 21 No. 2-SHELTER 79
