More than 20% of office space take-up in Birmingham, Brussels and Dublin now flexible workspace – Savills

The average share of flexible office space take-up in Europe reached 7.5% in Q1 2018, up from 7.2% in 2017 and almost three times higher than 2016, according to international real estate advisor Savills. Over the past five quarters, more than 820,000 sq m of office space was taken by flexible workspace providers. Of this, 26% is located in London, 15% in Paris, 10% in Berlin, 6% in Warsaw and 5% in Hamburg. In the first quarter of 2018, Birmingham recorded the highest share of office space at 23.7%, with significant rises in Dublin, from 5.9% in 2017 to 20.2% and Brussels from 4.9% to 20.5%.

Across Europe, WeWork was the largest occupier with almost 295,000 sq m, followed by IWG (Regus/Spaces) with approximately 155,000 sq m. The average deal size was in the region of 3,600 sq m with 42% of the deals in the 1-1,999 sq m size band, showing that the concept continues to predominantly service independent professionals (iPros), startups and small businesses.

Eri Mitsostergiou, Director, European Research, Savills, says: “Across the office space sector in Europe, we are seeing a demand for higher flexibility, shorter leases and personalised services. Looking forward, we expect to see further expansion of the brands that offer Workspace as a Service (WaaS), especially in the markets where the share of their activity is still low and where there is less diversity in the number of providers compared to London, Paris or Berlin. We should also see an increasing number of landlords offering parts of their portfolios on flexible terms with additional amenities and facilities.”

New demand can also come from more traditional companies and larger corporates with more than 1,000 employees. Flexible and shorter leases are appealing to these companies, especially when expanding. According to Savills, this is a segment that WaaS providers will seek to tap into in order to ensure sizeable occupancy and income from their assets. In order to achieve this they will be providing a mix of collaborative and individual working areas to allow for different working styles and needs.

Cal Lee, head of Workthere*, comments: “Businesses are quickly realising the benefits of serviced accommodation, not just the flexibility, but also the amenities these new spaces offer. As a result, we expect to see demand continue to grow over the next year, supported by further acquisitions by serviced office providers, particularly in those towns and cities that have a lower supply of flexible office space.”

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*Launched in February 2017, Workthere is a Savills venture introduced to help businesses find flexible, co-working and serviced office space across Europe, America and Asia. Workthere is an entirely new brokerage service and website listing platform - workthere.com - combining tech with an expert human touch. Workthere is a completely free service for occupiers and covers the entire flexible work space market as well as more specialist space such as laboratories. The concept was formed by Cal Lee, a former graduate and development surveyor at Savills, who identified the opportunity to offer a new platform for growing co-working and flexible work space providers to market their space. www.workthere.com