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New figures from officebroker.com
show that sustained recovery across
central London’s serviced office market
in the second quarter of 2013 resulted
in an average monthly rental of £668
per workstation.
The most expensive serviced offices
are in London’s West End, home to 112
serviced office providers. In April-June the
average workstation rental rate in this area
rose to £725 per month, 3% higher than in
the same period last year.
The area with the greatest price rises
was south of the river in SE1 where the
completion of The Shard helped push up
workstation rental rates by 25% to £543
per workstation per month, compared to
£434 in the first half of last year.
The number of businesses renting
space in SE1’s 14 serviced office locations
increased by 14%. A typical licence
agreement for 4-5 workstations reflects the
area’s popularity with start-ups looking for
easy access to the commercial hubs north
of the river.
Officebroker.com CEO Chris Meredith
welcomes the recovery in London’s
serviced office sector, but says that it has
not yet spread outside the capital.
“The recovery of the serviced office
market in London is another clear signal
that the UK’s economy is moving in
the right direction. However, when we
compare London to other cities across
the UK we see that it is the exception
rather than the rule.Whilst other major
cities like Manchester, Birmingham and
Edinburgh are all seeing steady increases in
performance, their success is yet to match
that of the capital,” he said.
Meredith argues that lower rents in
the regions are encouraging more large
businesses to open satellite offices away
from their London headquarters for
financial and recruitment reasons.
“Satellite offices give businesses the
chance to recruit from a much wider pool
of potential employees. They do not need to
be restricted by location, instead they can
employ the most talented individual and
save on relocation costs simply by setting
them up in their own office,” he said.
Meredith added: “Relocation costs are
the tip of the iceberg when it comes to
savings: a regional wage will be much lower
than one that’s London-weighted; office
space is considerably cheaper away from
the Capital; and by recruiting the right
person first time, a business would hope
they’d remain with them a few years.”
According to Officebroker, the average
cost of a desk is £200 per month in Bristol
and £238 in the Midlands.
www.officebroker.com
Everything you
need to make
money from spare
desks
Three leaders in the field
of co-working have joined
forces in a new venture that provides informal
commercial landlords with everything they
need to generate additional revenue from their
spare office space.
Combining the expertise of Desk Union, Medusa
and RJmetis, Hubcreate provides a turnkey solution
for marketing, managing and billing unused desks
let out to start-ups, freelancers, consultants and
independent professionals.
Desk Union runs an online marketplace that
matches individuals in need of professional
workspace with businesses that have spare space
to rent out. As well as bringing interested parties
together, Desk Union takes care of all the necessary
paperwork and collects rent from tenants.
Medusa provides ShareMaker, a drop-in appliance
that alleviates problems businesses can encounter
when taking on tenants, such as disruption, extra
IT support bills and concerns around security or
bandwidth. It does this by creating independent
networks for each company sharing a workspace
and managing time-based access control for
individuals using desks or lounges, as well as
accounting and door entry functions.
RJmetis runs a complete online invoicing, room
booking and CRM system for shared offices and
business centres.
Victoria Arnold, founder of Desk Union, said:
“The success of a workspace is heavily dependent
upon the way it is utilised. Through careful planning,
infrastructure, marketing and management,
Hubcreate simplifies processes, whilst maximising
success and generating additional revenue for
informal commercial landlords.”
0131 516 2690 [email protected]
www.deskunion.com
www.medusabusiness.com
www.rjmetis.com
Growing demand pushes serviced
office rents to five year high
London’s serviced office market hit a five and a half year high this
summer, with workstation rental costs exceeding 2008 levels for
the first time since the downturn. However, there are still bargains
to be had outside the capital.
Victoria Arnold, founder of Desk Union,
with Tony Freeth, chairman of Medusa
Regus has opened its 75th London business centre at Rex House, Piccadilly Circus. To meet the
growing need for on demand desk space, the new centre features a large co-working area – the
Campus – in addition to a high-tech business lounge, private offices, meeting rooms and a
large roof terrace with views over theWest End. According to a recent poll by Regus, more than
four out of 10 professionals now work remotely for at least half their working week.