§1What this business is

You take ready flats on rent in a residential building, furnish them like a small home (bedroom, living room, kitchenette, AC, fridge, Wi-Fi) and let them to guests who stay for weeks: project staff, medical-tourist families, event teams and families on long holidays. You run housekeeping and linen; food comes from tied-up restaurants, on which you earn a commission. The SIDBI profile plans five flats of about 750 sq ft, one turned into a common room with two meeting rooms.

Capacity: 4 flats for guests at a time; at most 2 adults and 2 children, or 3 adults, per flat. Two meeting rooms.

§2Is it right for you?

Who it is for

Someone in an IT, industrial, hospital or tourist town who can find well-placed flats and run them hands-on.

Who it is not for

Someone who wants a passive income — the owner handles guests, complaints and marketing personally.

Advantages

  • Flats are rented, so most of the money goes into furniture and appliances you can move
  • Long-stay guests and corporate tie-ups bring repeat business
  • Booking sites and social media keep marketing costs low
  • Small staff: two housekeepers and one attendant

Drawbacks

  • Rent of ₹12.00 L a year is due whether the flats are full or empty
  • Depends on the building for lifts, security and water
  • Guest reviews make or break bookings
  • Neighbours and housing societies may object to short stays

Skills you need

  • Finding and negotiating flats on long lease
  • Online listing, pricing and review management
  • Housekeeping and maintenance control
  • Building corporate tie-ups

Why difficulty 3/5: Simple to set up, but fixed rent means you must keep the flats full.

§3Market

Who buys

  • IT and project professionals on assignments of weeks or months
  • Executives and vendors at new industrial and corporate sites
  • Families of patients at hospitals
  • Event organisers and long-stay holiday families
  • NRIs and Gulf visitors on extended home trips

How it sells

  • Booking aggregators and own website or social media
  • Corporate tie-ups
  • Repeat guests and reviews

Good to know

  • The profile names Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Gurgaon as the early hubs.
  • Lower tariff than a hotel for more space is the main selling point.

§4Raw material & machinery

ItemQtyCost
Air-conditioning, water heating, TV, iron, cutlery, crockery, stove, fridge, oven, room heater and similar items for the flatsset₹8.00 lakh
Hard furniture and furnishingset₹15.00 lakh
Bathroom fittings and fixturesset₹2.00 lakh
Common flat: furniture, treadmill, washing machine, massage chair, shoe-polish machine, housekeeping equipmentset₹3.00 lakh

From: SIDBI Stand-Up Mitra project profile — Serviced Apartment (2018) — private guide — confirm locally

  • Toiletries, tea and coffee supplies, laundryrunning costs of the flats
  • Meals for guestsordered from tied-up restaurants; the operator keeps a 10% commission

From: SIDBI Stand-Up Mitra project profile — Serviced Apartment (2018) — private guide — confirm locally

§5Licences & registration

  1. Udyam registration
  2. GST registration
  3. Shops and establishments registration
  4. Fire safety clearance (named in the profile)
  5. Form C reporting to the FRRO for foreign guests
  6. Written consent of flat owners and the housing society for guest use

We can do this registration for you

§6Schemes & subsidies

MUDRA covers loans up to ₹20 L, so part of the ₹35.00 L; CGTMSE for a loan without collateral; Stand-Up India for SC/ST and women founders setting up a new service business. PMEGP's service-sector ceiling is lower than this project.

§7Money

How the investment is worked out: Three months' rent deposit for five flats ₹3.00 L + furniture and furnishing ₹15.00 L + bathroom fittings ₹2.00 L + AC, water heating, TV, kitchen and other appliances ₹8.00 L + common-flat furniture and housekeeping equipment ₹3.00 L + preliminary and pre-operative expenses ₹3.10 L + working capital margin ₹0.90 L = ₹35.00 L. Flats are rented, not bought.

Working capital: Working capital ₹0.90 L, no working-capital loan. Debt-equity 1:1 — owner's share ₹17.50 L; term loan at 11% repaid over five years after a six-month moratorium.

SIDBI Stand-Up Mitra profile, uploaded in 2018 (no year printed on it) — prices will be higher now; check current costs.

How to prepare a loan file

§8Export potential

A local service business; it has no goods to export.

§9Risks — where people fail

  • Low occupancy in the first year
  • Landlord ending the lease after you have furnished the flats
  • Misuse of flats by guests
  • Appliance breakdowns hurting reviews

§1030 / 60 / 90-day plan

A general plan that applies to any business. A plan for this business will be added after research.

  1. Days 1–30: Visit a working serviced apartment unit, ask 10 buyers about price and quantity, and get quotations from 3 suppliers.
  2. Days 31–60: Udyam and the licences you need (Udyam registration, GST registration), a project report (DPR), and the scheme or loan file.
  3. Days 61–90: Space and machines, trial production, and first deliveries to 10 customers.

§11Who to connect with

Not verified yet

Associations, clusters and training institutes — the directory is being built. Connect

§12Watch

There is no episode on this business yet. Shows are coming soon on the Podcast page.

Want to start Serviced Apartment?

DPR, loan file or registration — ask us on WhatsApp.

Get a DPR / loan file made

Sources

  1. SIDBI Stand-Up Mitra project profile — Serviced Apartment (2018)

Data review: 6 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report it. For information only — not legal or financial advice.