Stay In The Loop.

Why Serviced Offices should be part of your Leased Portfolio

Serviced offices are increasingly being seen as a standard part of companies’ leased premises portfolios, according to research published earlier this year.

An article in the March 2021 edition of the journal Buildings looked at six co-working strategies under the heading ‘Searching for Flexibility in Corporate Real Estate Portfolio‘.

Based on real-world examples, the research identified six strategies companies are using to improve their flexibility and shift towards more co-working environments:

1. Swing space
2. Expansion space
3. Core and flex
4. Touchdown space
5. Testing market
6. Temporary projects and staff

Together these strategies enable flexibility during times of change, such as:

1. While headquarters are being renovated
2. Periods of growth
3. Diversification of mature businesses
4. Meeting rooms for satellite workers
5. New startups
6. Short-term increases in staff levels

For all of the above, serviced offices are a good option, providing flexible levels of office space for as long as organisations need it, along with on-site meeting rooms for hire and informal spaces for collaboration and conversation.

Serviced offices in their own words

The article includes several interviews with real-world business operators who have found serviced offices the answer to some of the challenges their organisation was facing.

One took up serviced office space as a way to adapt to fluctuating employee numbers and said: “Flexibility is really important in the company at the moment, and that’s one of the things that you get with serviced offices that you cannot get with a traditional office.”

Another explained that, in recent years, their organisation has moved from viewing serviced offices as a solution only for new projects or entering new markets, to a core part of their leased portfolio of business premises.

They said: “One or two years ago we saw serviced offices really like a flexible layer for where we would enter a new country, for example, or we had a project which was very temporary.

“But now, especially what we proved with some offices globally, is that it can also be seen as part of your leased portfolio.”

Make serviced offices a permanent solution

While the flexibility of serviced office leases is still an important factor for many tenants, it is also clear that a growing number of businesses worldwide consider serviced office space to be a long-term part of their business premises rental portfolio.

This is apparent in the UK, where the increasing proportion of serviced offices in London and Manchester, compared with other types of office space in the cities, is an indication that more businesses are using serviced offices, and are choosing to stay for longer.

After an extended period of economic turbulence due to political upheavals, successive economic crises and the lockdown of many businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s no surprise that companies are looking to the flexibility of serviced offices as a long-term solution for the years ahead.

With our recently opened Millharbour Court Business Centre in London’s Millennium Quarter and our biggest ever development of serviced offices in Telford, the Serviced Office Company continues to provide more of the spaces you need, in the places where you need them.