Future of the UK serviced Office Market
Just read an excellent article on officing today, about the possible future of the UK serviced office market. The article cites the comments of Mark Dixon, predicting that many out of town office parks may have empty space in them as people either work in flexible offices near where they live or alternatively work in city centres which are easilt commutable. Presumably this would mean some Regus centres having to close as no doubt they will be running some of the existing out of town centres. The upside is they will probably run a greater number of these flexible offices as well as managing the virtual/mobile offices for those who work from home.
An ominous sign for operators and developers is that “80% of financial services, oil, mining and utility companies thought they had too much office space“. This may be a reaction to the recession but it is clear that if companies can save on commercial property costs, their second higher outgoing after salaries, they will. So perhaps less business centres or less situated on the fringes of cities but there will still be demand for workspace. One possible consequence could be increased rents for prime city centre space and also that out of town traditional schemes having to convert to the new “flexible offices”.