Co-working spaces in Madurai get good response

Madurai: Increasing urbanisation and the rise of startups in Madurai have given a boost for more flexible professional environments with many firms perferring the non-permanent co-working spaces as options.During the pandemic, many companies switched to the work-from-home mode while subsequently some companies maintained hybrid modes, reducing the need for large, permanent office spaces. However, such companies felt a need for a professional space for occasional meetings, conferences, or to conduct interviews, leading them to look for alternative options such as renting a conference room on an hourly or daily basis.While popular co-working space companies are still focussing on tier-1 cities, smaller companies have stepped in to fill the gap in Madurai, providing spaces for employees from various organizations to work side by side. Many such office spaces are fully enclosed and secured with biometric access. Suneel, one of the founders of Value CoWork in the city, said the demand for such flexible office spaces has been rising post the Covid-19 pandemic. "We started a co-working facility in 2020. There was no demand for the first two years. Subsequently, the demand has started picking up," he said.CoWork focuses on providing office spaces or conference rooms 24X7 on rent to small companies and startups. "Many fresh and small companies struggle to pay the upfront costs for a lease, the advance on the rent of a commercial space, and the infrastructure requirements to run an office space," Suneel said. "Some people rent out a space to take interviews for a day, while some companies rent a whole room with biometric security, which even we do not have access to, on a monthly basis," he said."Following the pandemic, many companies that shut down their offices were looking for spaces for hybrid workspace or a streamlined office space," said Rajkumar, the founder of Luminspace. "We aim to fill such demands. We provide additional facilities such as a pantry, microwave, and finishing up construction on a courtyard as well to give a real feel of an office," he said.