Search Results for: coworking

January 12, 2018

European commercial property market in good health as coworking phenomenon takes hold

by Neil Franklin • Coworking, News, Property

European commercial property markets have started 2018 in a positive way, with provisional data for 2017 from Knight Frank suggesting that investment volumes were higher than in 2016. If 2017 beats 2016’s total of €216 billion it will still remain well below the market peak of 2015 when over €250 billion was invested, according to the latest commercial property outlook report from Knight Frank. The real estate firm expects 2018 transaction volumes to be similar to those of 2017 and the report says that significant amounts of capital continue will be allocated to real estate. The report also highlights how flexible workspace and coworking is now a Europe-wide phenomenon, with London, Berlin and Paris witnessing the strongest growth. The sector will continue to expand, as new styles of workspace are developed to service a growing variety of occupier needs, says the report. Last year Baptiste Broughton reported for us on the state of the coworking market in France.

November 13, 2017

Serviced offices and coworking spaces boom in Manchester in response to growing customer demand

by Mark Eltringham • Coworking, News, Property

Rising demand from businesses for flexible working space has sparked a boom in the provision of coworking spaces serviced offices in Manchester in 2017, according to the latest office market snapshot by real estate advisors Colliers International. The report showed serviced office providers addressed the need for flexible working from small and growing operators by taking in excess of 100,000 sq ft of space in Manchester in the first three quarters of 2017. Major developments included global co-working specialist WeWork following the opening of its first office outside London at No 1 Spinningfields by adding another 44,000 sq ft at One St Peter’s Square and property developer Allied London launching its own co-working brand All Work & Social to operate alongside WeWork at Spinningfields.

November 9, 2017

Review: ushering in a new era for the coworking phenomenon ⁰

by Paul Carder • Comment, Coworking, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

Ramon Suarez has produced a very practical book, based on his own experience as one of the pioneers of coworking. And let’s be clear – it is coworking (not “co-working”; there is no hyphen), as Suarez explains, “a coworker (a member of a coworking space) is not the same as a co-worker (somebody who happens to work for the same company or in your same office)”. On his business card, Suarez describes his role as “Serendipity Accelerator”- you will understand that if you read the book. Suarez differentiates coworking from its many (and mostly false) aliases. Shared offices may be collaborative, but do not provide the network of people found in a good coworking space. Networked offices, where more than one company shares space and may collaborate, “come close” to coworking. Hacker & Maker spaces, Accelerators, Incubators and Cafes are similarly differentiated.

November 1, 2017

Edinburgh named best city in the UK for coworking

by Mark Eltringham • Coworking, News, Property

Edinburgh has been named as the UK’s leading city for coworking , according to a study from MoneySuperMarket. The firm analysed 18 cities across the UK against key factors, such as the cost per workstation, business insurance and the number of office spaces available, to see which cities are deemed the most desirable places to co-work. The research found Edinburgh to be the best city for coworking spaces, due to its competitive coworking prices, broadband speeds and low number of insurance claims. Brighton and Hove on the other hand ranked last, due to the limited and costly desk space. Although London has the highest number of coworking spaces, the high costs of working in London ensured it finished near the bottom of the list based on the criteria used in the study.

September 25, 2017

People who work in coworking spaces believe they are more productive

by Mark Eltringham • Coworking, Flexible working, News

People who work in so-called coworking spaces claim they are more motivated and have more positive interactions with others, according to a new report. The report by Staples Solutions, called Collaboration Generation: The Rise of Millennials in the Workplace, details the trend in collaborative working, in addition to what attracts the millennial generation to business. Since 2010, co-working spaces worldwide have increased by 5,519 percent as the average office space per employee has decreased by 2.9 percent, the research reveals, with London seeing a reduction in traditional office space by 8.8 percent.

August 23, 2017

New eco coworking centre breaks ground in Oxfordshire

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, Company news, Environment, Property

Construction has begun on a new zero carbon business centre at the Elmsbrook development in Bicester, Oxfordshire. PERCH, Elmsbrook is one of two new coworking spaces brought to Bicester by Cherwell District Council (CDC) and is subject to support from European Regional Development Funding. The 1,400 sqm building will span three floors and accommodate up to 125 people. The council claims it will be unique in ‘providing local office space for individuals and small businesses in a highly sustainable building, meeting the standards of the North West Bicester Eco Town’ scheme.

August 4, 2017

Coworking provider Mindspace set to open first London location

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, Coworking

Coworking provider Mindspace has announced that it will be opening its first coworking property in London. Opening in December 2017, the new location will span two floors and around 30,000 sq ft which the firm claims will accommodate 700 members. Mindspace currently operates 13 coworking spaces across the European mainland in locations such as Berlin, Hamburg (pictured), Munich, Tel Aviv and Warsaw and was founded in 2014 by Dan Zakai and Yotam Alroy. Mindspace’s first coworking space in London will be located at the Relay Building on Whitechapel High Street, directly above Aldgate East tube station and within walking distance of the City and Shoreditch.

July 11, 2017

Serviced and coworking offices top London leasing market for the first time ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Coworking, Flexible working, News, Property

Serviced and coworking office space providers have accounted for the largest share of space leased in Central London for the first time, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield. During the first half of 2017, serviced office or co-working providers – such as WeWork and The Office Group – accounted for 884,235 sq ft of newly-leased office space in central London. The second quarter of the year in particular witnessed a dramatic escalation in activity by serviced office and co-working providers with 651,540 sq ft leased – around a quarter of central London’s take-up across April, May and June. This was more than London’s traditionally dominant occupational sub-sectors such as technology, media and financial services. The H1 2017 total is more than serviced office and coworking providers accounted for in the whole of 2016 (853,178 sq ft). and is just a deal or two shy of the sector’s average annual take-up between 2012 and 2016 (908,972). It seems certain therefore that serviced office and co-working providers will this year surpass their record annual volume of 1,267,926 sq ft set in 2014, according to the firm.

June 7, 2017

Coworking and the current French revolution in the workplace ⁰

by Baptiste Broughton • Case studies, Cities, Features, Flexible working, Workplace design

In France, we might have been the first to behead a King and hold a revolution, or to stand on barricades and die for ideals of justice and equality, but when it comes to change – especially in large organisations– we always seem to lag behind. You could blame it on a number of factors: a cultural bias towards tradition, the legacy of an interventionist and ever-present state, spawning bureaucratic models of large state-owned corporations, the everlasting grasp of the elites stifling innovation and the ability to “think outside the box”… Whatever this may be, the debate around remote working – a type of work organisation which allows employees to work regularly away from the office – in France has always been articulated around the preconception that France was behind. And that while its Anglo-Saxon or Nordic European neighbours displayed a boastful 30 percent of the working population as remote workers, France struggled to reach a meagre 9 to 10 percent in 2010.

May 17, 2017

A nuanced approach to the design of the coworking office ⁰

by Ajay Chopra • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

The coworking segment of the real estate business is poised for exponential growth in the coming years, as the number of market players around the world today continues to increase. With humble beginnings in an economic recession, the shared workspace trend has captivated both the start-up entrepreneur and the remote corporate worker, alike. This success is due, in large part, to the fact that the coworking model provides an opportunity for a wealth of amenities that go far beyond the traditional office’s standard desk space. These shared, multi-functional facilities are carefully designed to be both vibrant and personable, with endless opportunities for community collaboration and innovation.

April 24, 2017

WeWork extends property as a service offering as IBM takes on entire coworking building ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace design

In a deal of enormous significance for the commercial property and workplace sectors, IBM has agreed a deal with coworking giant WeWork to take on all the space at its 88 University Place office in New York. Although originally targeted at startups and freelancers, especially those working in the creative and technology sectors, a growing number of corporate clients are seeing the appeal of coworking space in a fast changing world and now make up over a fifth of WeWork’s membership worldwide. Meanwhile, in moves that are sure to have major implications for the corporate real estate and facilities management market, WeWork has also announced plans to become a major real estate investor and introduce a wider range of FM services. The firm already operates in 135 locations spread across 44 cities in 14 countries.

April 5, 2017

Corporate occupiers turn to coworking space to keep down property costs ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace design

Demand for coworking spaces is growing at an average of 10-15 percent per annum across all regions as firms look to cut their real estate costs by embracing the concept based on shared work spaces and collaboration. That is the key finding of a new report from Cushman & Wakefield. As the trend gains momentum, according to the study, developers are increasingly incorporating the aesthetic and function of such flexible working environments into mainstream building design. However the main driver of uptake continues to be concern about the cost of renting offices in prime locations and it is no surprise that coworking is focussed on major globalised cities.