For growing numbers of employees across Europe’s big cities, heading into the office no longer entails sitting at the same desk, next to the same colleagues each day.
As more companies of all shapes and sizes choose turn to flexible space – whether its hot-desking areas in buildings they already occupy or taking space in independently owned coworking set-ups – it’s fast becoming part of modern working life and a small but increasingly significant part of Europe’s office markets.
Europe’s flex space footprint has doubled since the start of 2015, according to JLL’s Flexible space: Transforming real estate report. In 2017 alone, flexible space grew by 29 percent, adding around 620,000 square meters.
Now, in cities with thriving start-up scenes such as Amsterdam, Berlin and London, growing numbers of operators from behemoths like eoffice, The Office Group and WeWork to local brands are snapping up office leases and jostling to market their services to a growing band of freelancers, contractors and corporates.
In the last three years the amount of flexible space in Amsterdam, Berlin and London increased by as much as 35 percent a year. Amsterdam now has the highest flex space concentration globally, accounting for 5.6 percent of its total office stock, which places it ahead of even the most mature US office markets.
“Growth in flexible space is being driven by changes in how, when and where people work with as much as 30 percent of the working population already working in the on-demand or gig economy,” says Alex Colpaert, Head of Office Research at JLL EMEA.
“The proliferation of cloud computing, VPNs, super-fast Wi-Fi and 4G (soon 5G) connectivity means that office-type work can be carried out anywhere and at any time.”
Corporate attitudes are also evolving past the traditional 9-5, fixed desk model with an increased emphasis on collaboration, community and agility. “Many larger companies now realize that, to compete in the digital age, they need to attract and retain skilled people who are unlikely to relish traditional office environments,” says Colpaert.
Office life 2.0
With flexible space very much in take-off phase in Europe, new formats are coming to the fast-growing market. JLL research suggests there are more than 700 unique operators in the 20 largest European office markets, 20 percent of which opened their first centre within the last two years.
In doing so, they’re creating ever more diverse sets of formats from women-only to industry-specific, and bare bones to luxury, all-inclusive models.