By 2023 12.5% of the UK office market will consist of flexible workspaces, Instant Group has predicted.
Research from the flexible workspace specialist shows that for the past five year the demand for 25-plus and 50-plus desks has increased faster than for co-working memberships, particularly since the Brexit vote, and that 45% of FTSE 100 firms, including Amazon and Barclays, have procured such space through Instant.
Currently flexible office space accounts for 6% of the London office market and less than 4% across the UK.
In 2019, 35% of office deals in London involved flexible leases, Instant reported.
However, despite the increase in occupiers taking flexible space, there has been a 6% year-on-year fall in desk rates in flexible workspace in London to £844 per calendar month, according to Instant’s Global Cities report.
Instant said this has been largely caused by a 17% increase in supply creating intense competition.
John Duckworth, managing director UK & EMEA at Instant Group, said: “Flex space is now a fast, agile route to market for companies of all sizes, and adoption of flex space will only increase as larger organisations work flex options into their processes.
“Commercial real estate has been procured with a conventional lease for more than a century and it is a large oil tanker to turn around. But with large, blue-chip clients such as GSK and EY predicting that 35% to 40% of their portfolios will consist of flex options in the future, then there should be enough enterprise-level demand to drive future growth.”
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