London’s flexible office market has grown by 25% in the last two years to 20m sq ft, driven by more niche operators and larger occupiers, according to research from the Instant Group.
In the last year alone, the UK added 824,000 new desks to its flexible workspace footprint. In total there are 5,320 flexible offices in the UK – nearly a quarter of which are in London.
Growth has been particularly strong among niche operators, with more than 2,800 companies offering flexible office space across the UK, while the 10 biggest operators account for just 14% of flexible spaces.
Serviced offices are increasingly attracting larger corporate clients looking for more space and longer leases. Close to one-third of occupiers in flexible space in London are companies with 50 desks or more, and enquiries for this amount of desks has grown 19% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the proportion of tenants looking to lease flexible space for 18 months or more grew from just 3% in 2016 to 10% in 2017.
John Duckworth, managing director of Instant Group EMEA and UK, said: “The property market will need to adapt and evolve to the challenge of meeting consumer demands in a way it has never had to do so before. The flexible workspace market provides space to its clients on their terms – flexible pricing, length of stay, choice of location and buying online.
“The next five years promise to be an extremely exciting time for those of us working in the market. It is my view that the sectoral landscape will look very different in 2022 than it does now. And it will be very interesting to see which of the more traditional firms see this journey through.”
To send feedback, e-mail karl.tomusk@egi.co.uk or tweet @ktomusk or @estatesgazette
