The Growth of Furniture Rental Business in India The trend is fueled by increasing urbanization, rising trend of nuclear families, and expanding working population
By Sidhant Lamba •
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Renting is not a new concept for Indians. People have been renting houses since decades. But then, they still had to buy their own furniture or other home appliances. This would always cause them trouble when they want to relocate, or even more, if they have a transferable job. They would either want to sell their products each time when they have to shift or would have to spend additional amount for relocation.
People are now looking for different options to avoid such trouble of relocating or reselling. This process had led to the creation of rental startups. Today, one can rent anything and everything online, be it a car, cloths, furniture or home appliances. The trend is fueled by increasing urbanization, rising trend of nuclear families, and expanding working population. People are becoming more economical and opting for renting products as a more conventional choice.
Advantages of Rented Furniture
Furniture renting has it's own advantages, like it doesn't lock your money, it eases your shifting hassles and you have the choice of refreshing the furniture at your will.
Furniture renting has become a common option for people living in a rented home, as it not only serves their will to have some of the state of art, user-compatible furniture under their budget, the offers also come with free delivery, setup and installation, enabling end-to-end solution for the customers.
Expanding Area of Operation
The furniture rental option is now not only limited to rented homes, many new offices are also now bending towards furniture rentals. The rise of start-up and co-working culture has seen these new age office owners choosing to rent furniture instead of owning them. Renting office furniture helps the new start-ups with small budget to have the apt office look even when they can't have extra expenditure involved. In most of the cases, start-ups in their initial age work from small office space, but as the ecosystem suggest, that the growth cannot be predicted, they get an immediate need of expanding their team and thereby, the space. Renting the furniture helps them to cut the cost of shifting and have immediate access to many new furniture.
The New Concept
The concept of Rent to Buy is also doing profits around, as the rental companies are also allowing people to buy the furniture, they have been renting for a while. This could also be a way to try before you buy. You can rent the furniture for minimum of three months, and then buy the same if you love it or can even get it replaced.
There are people who are at times open to the option of renting and yet there is a stigma attached to it, as not having the feel of ownership bothers them. Rather than wasting the rent money, why not "invest" that money and own the furniture under a flexible Rent-To-Buy options that the furniture rentals are now providing.
Potential of Growth
Research suggests that, the furniture rental market is expected to grow at a robust rate over the forecast period —2017-2024. In India, the market for furniture rental is seen to be around $800-850 Mn. With the rise in demand for the furniture rentals among the tier 1 cities, it has also let to the increase in awareness, with which the furniture rentals are also eyeing towards tier 2 and 3 cities for as a potential market. In the last 3 years the furniture rental industry has seen the growth of 1000% and has been growing 2.5 times every year.
The rental start-ups are redefining the lives of many young professional living away from home, newly married couples setting up a home on low budgets, and even students pursuing professional courses and higher studies away from home, by providing them access to various luxurious home furniture and office furniture, under their budget at just a single tab away. The furniture rental is today considered as the best options for some of the obvious reasons, being, having access to astounding variety of furniture under their budget, can eliminate the relocation cost for furniture and having value for money.
