DECEMBER 20199Renting is so much more relevant in today's world because of multiple reasons. Here's why?If we take a look back the last few years, the concept of renting has been strongly influ-enced and impacted by the concept of SaaS products. Software was usually bought by businesses to reduce capex, enhance busi-ness operations and processes. Today, soft-ware can be rented out on subscription and more and more businesses are adopting it. Oracle, SalesForce, Microsoft, Google are increasingly offering software on a subscription model and businesses (Enter-prise, SME and Consumers) can choose to opt in or out at their will or convenience. This entire phenomenon is playing out in a lot of other spaces like cars, furniture, real estate and other slowly emerging utility based con-cepts for renting.That being said, let's take a brief look at some new concepts of renting that have disrupted a lot of existing businesses which aim to sell as opposed to lease.Millennial: The Growing and Demanding Demography Millennials in India seem to be a very impatient generation who absolutely don't like to wait. In this day and age, everything has to be instantaneous. Be it work or outside, they want things done as soon as possible. Among them, there's an underlying understanding that time is money and they tend to drift towards services who deliver quicker than others. They aren't particularly fond of having their patience tested. You name it, every industry now (banking, food, transport, ticket bookings, home rentals) have shorter execution and delivery service timings.Renting is Disruptive for the Real Estate Industry Because: The generations of today live fast-paced lives and many people generally in the 22-35 age bracket, namely millen-nials, are still having a tough time settling down in a sin-gle place. Jobs and internships demand a lot from them and this comes at a cost to their home lives. Essentially, for the generations in this age bracket, investments are simply not investments. For example, purchasing a house is rarely on the minds of newly working youth. Their go-to option is renting a studio or a paying guest accommo-dation which can put them up for the time period that they will be at the job they start out at. Renting houses is more of a modern concept since traditionally the older generations tend to buy a house and live in it in the long term.India has a $20 billion residential rent-al market consists of $13.5 billion in urban, $0.8 billion in rural, and $5.7 billion in vacant non-resident Indian property brokerage. These numbers aid the boom of the Indian rental industry and encourage investors to turn to buying and renting out living spaces.There are many businesses which offer homes for rent in the market. On one hand you have traditional companies like India Properties, Common Floor, 99Acres, Housing.com, Quickr and other such businesses. On the other hand you have new age managed rental platforms like Nestaway, YourOwn-ROOM, COHO etc. These businesses put together are all redefining the way millennials in India live.Multiple Formats of Online Rentals for MillennialsAs online managed rentals gain more popularity in to-day's world, we're witnessing an array of different for-mats of renting homes that many businesses are now beginning to offer. These businesses have catered to dif-ferent segments according to taste, preferability and af-fordability. Millennials now have the choice to rent from homes that offer co-living (homes that offer a support system to settle into new cities), Single rooms (for mil-lennials that prefer privacy), and family homes (for newly wedded couples). We're slowly seeing many businesses cropping up which is aiding the gradual switch to rent. Thanks to these businesses, owners can now rent more than just properties. Furniture, cars, books, videos and even clothes are all up for rent.Renting in any form is more economical for both the seller and consumer as the consumer can fulfil his re-quirements at fraction of the cost and the seller can re-cover more than his initial investment. All in all both the parties are at profit here. Renting in any form is more economical for both the seller and consumer as the consumer can fulfil his requirements at fraction of the cost and the seller can recover more than his initial investmentPrabhat Kumar Tiwary, CEO & Founder
< Page 8 | Page 10 >