Locating Office Space

Continuing with our series of blog posts with respect to ‘Setting Up An IT Company In India‘, another parallel activity that you need to start is locating an office space.

With the world making a beeline for Pune, Pune has become a home for several large IT/ITES companies, automobile industries, banks and retail brands. Here are some guidelines:

• The availability of commercial office space is rather limited. However, do look around for space that has other IT companies near-by; easy accessibility to restaurants, hotels and residential area.
• The rates for renting out (on lease) property (that has been fully furnished ie. pre-wired and interiors done up), are between Rs 80 to Rs. 90 per sq. ft. Also, there is a stamp duty to be paid on the payable rent.
• Rates for bare, commercial office space range from Rs 40 to Rs 50 per sq. ft.
• Normally, 10 months rental is taken as security deposit.
• Ensure that adequate parking space is provided.
• You would have to add a few Rupees per sq. ft. for car parking per car, office maintenance, water, municipal corporation charges, security and diesel for generator.
• The lock-in period varies from 3 to 5 years.
• One noticeable problem is that these properties are usually a minimum of 8000 sq. ft. and above. Assuming 100 sq. ft. per developer, a 30 developer team would require around 3000 sq. ft. and it is really tough finding such commercial properties.
• I would not recommend office space in residential areas as there are other problems like society permissions, reliable internet availability etc.
• Some of the preferred commercial locations in Pune are Boat Club, Kalyani Nagar, Koregaon Park, Aundh and Baner.
• Ask your LC to talk to a few real-estate agents for help in locating office space.

What has been your experience? Do you find the process very cumbersome and time consuming? Are there any suggestions?

Part 2: Company Name Approval\ Part 1: Setting Up An IT Company In India

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