The Co-Living Concept Is Increasingly In Interest, Rukita Updates Applications Targeting Community

Residential concept co-living is becoming increasingly popular, especially in big cities in Indonesia. Long-term private room rental with shared facilities and space is actually not a new concept, it's just that here it is more familiar with the term boarding house. Boarding houses are considered affordable and practical, especially for young professionals, because they are more affordable and are located near institutional or office areas.

One of the players targeting this segment is Rukita, a service provider startup co-living which is claimed to be very practical and suitable for young professionals in looking for ready-to-use housing. Not long ago, Rukita launched its newest application, offering complete information to explore the availability of boarding houses or apartments in the nearest location.

"Young professionals will find it easier to view and book property units only from their personal devices, whether mobile phones or computers, wherever and whenever," said Co-founder & CEO Rukita Sabrina Soewatdy.

In addition to offering rooms and various housing-related needs for customers, in its latest application update, Rukita provides a new feature, "Community" to encourage tenant and the wider community, especially young professionals, interact with each other and build better relationships. This feature is expected to provide more experience co-living which is more optimal.

"In the Rukita application, people, especially millennials, can search for unit options, monitor payment status, enroll in community activities, interact online through the comments column, to access a collection of interesting articles that enrich their knowledge," said Sabrina.

For approximately two years of existence, Rukita has succeeded in increasing collaboration with more than 20.000 properties on its platform. These residences are spread out in dense areas around Jabodetabek with the price range offered varies depending on the supporting facilities and position.

In line with the commitment to build a sustainable business in the sector proptech, Rukita implementing a business model that invests in property management capacity from upstream to downstream, including building inspections and appraisals before the transformation process, marketing & occupant acquisition, operations, property maintenance, to post-lease.

“Young professionals who have part-time investment in boarding houses will also be facilitated by partnering with Rukita. They can continue to work as usual and while earning passive income without any hassle, because everything has been managed well by Rukita.” he added.

Train co-living in times of pandemic

As a new alternative, residential business development co-living began to experience an increase in early 2020, especially in Jakarta. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, instead of declining like a service co-working space, residential enthusiasts co-living actually soared. This is in line with the growing trend of working from home (WFH) as well as public awareness of high property buying prices and ultimately preferring to rent more affordable housing to reduce costs.

This was conveyed by Co-founder & COO Rukita Sarah Soewatdy who noted that the number of new residents grew almost 2,5 times by the end of 2020. This is because this residential concept offers comfort at affordable prices and complete facilities, it has even become the choice of residents. millennials and urbanites.

Even so, not a few of the boarding house residents are thinking of leaving their current residence and choosing to return to their hometown or return home. Considering that some of them are migrants, when they received the news of WFH without thinking, they immediately packed up. This is an effort to save the cost of living in the city.

Similar apps in Indonesia

The large population of young people and the rapid urbanization process in Indonesia are driving the growth in demand for residential models co-living. In this segment, Rukita is not alone. There are at least four other platforms that offer similar services in Indonesia, such as Mamikos, Flokq, Travelio, Roommeand Cove based in Singapore.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) stated that real estate is a business sector that grew throughout the first quarter of 2021. Data from the Indonesian Real Estate Brokers Association (AREBI) also shows that ready-to-occupy apartments are one of the sub-sectors with the most visible growth. The property sector which continues to grow is projected to be a driver of increasing business opportunities co-living in Indonesia.