Market Reports

New York city is the second largest flexible office market globally with a wide mix of providers offering space. Rates vary dramatically across the city with some of the highest average rates per desk globally being achieved in the city. While the majority of supply exists in Manhattan in the last 12 months we have seen a move towards other boroughs such as Queens, Brooklyn and even Staten Island.

Singapore continues to see high levels of supply growth year on year with one of the largest flexible workspace markets in Asia found in the Island City-State. Singapore has long been a key business hub and with very limited office supply was a natural expansion ground for flexible working as providers looked to expand outside of their home markets. Because of this the share of large international operators is high across the city although niche coworking providers continue to pop up as the market develops.

Thanks to the tech boom in the city over the last decade the demand for high quality office space has been ever present. This meant that San Francisco was one of the first US cities to see a real flexible workspace industry. Rates remain some of the highest in the US and while larger companies are looking to create their own flexible environments the number of small companies looking to grow in the city creates continuous demand. Due to the cost of commercial real estate in the city we have more recently seen providers move out of the city core and into the wider bay area.

London is the most mature flexible market globally with both the largest volume of locations and some of the strongest demand levels. A number of years of high growth have created intense competition in certain areas of the city, but opportunities for expansion still remain.

Supply for flexible space in the city of Sydney has been limited by the lack of suitable office space over the last 12 months. This has limited the growth of supply to just 4% per quarter, a figure that is substantially down on the previous year. Despite this demand continues to grow at pace with the market overtaking Melbourne as the largest flex market in Australia over the last year.

Demand for flexible space in the city of Houston has consistently increased over the last 4 years with the average requirement now sitting just below 4 people. Rates vary across the city with average achieved rates dropping year on year. This trend has been impacted by the growing demand from less formal drop in style space, an environment that achieves far lower rates than more formal office spaces.

Rates for flexible space in the city of Melbourne have been steadily increasing, a sign that demand remains strong and growing in the city. Demand broadly matches to what we are seeing in Sydney with slower growth rates being seen due to the more mature nature of the market. Expansion into suburban neighbourhoods is expected over the next few years with a great emphasis on quality of life and wellness driving the growth.

The flexible office market in Toronto has been one of the strongest in North America over the last 2 years with very high levels of growth in both the CBD and surrounding neighbourhoods. A number of premium providers have opened in recent years helping to develop the market from a grass routes industry to a mature and stable market that caters to all types of businesses.

Hong Kong remains the largest flexible market in Asia from a supply perspective and has some of the highest rates in the region. The ability of flexible providers to maximise space usage has meant that while prices are high many occupiers can make significant savings when taking flex space compared to traditional office space in the city. Supply growth had been strong but a combination of economic impacting events has significantly taken the wind out of the sales of this once industry leading market.

Atlanta has seen a steady increase in both supply and demand for flexible workspace across the city. The city CBD continues to have limited available space so instead the flex market has expanded into the surrounding areas. We have seen multiple large spaces open up in more residential areas of the city providing space for both coworking and large teams needing flexible space. Rates have stayed stable despite this expansion into traditionally lower value markets, pointing to the value that the right space can achieve.

Manchester remains the second largest flexible market in the UK but has seen average rates slowly decline in recent years as the flex industry expands out of the CBD. We had seen a number of high profile flex providers target the city for expansion in 2018 and 2019 but the shine looks to be fading as competition for larger occupiers is fierce.