Serviced offices find their niche as the flexible answer

The RICS has published the findings of recent research into both the supply and demand sides of the serviced office equation.

Virginia Gibson and Colin Lizieri of Reading University report that corporate real estate portfolios are increasingly being separated into core and peripheral properties. It tends to be the purpose of the latter to provide the flexibility to cope with change, especially the ability to exit with comparative ease.

Serviced offices are more often regarded as one option for responding to immediate needs, especially as the range of choice for both location and quality has widened in recent years.

Key factors in the decision to use this type of space include speed of occupation, ability to vacate and levels of service provision - all factors that figure in corporate thinking about flexibility.

Not surprisingly, the business functions using the space tend to be those that may have a short-term purpose - often sales and marketing or business development - and in sectors generally adept at moving quickly - IT, finance and business services, typically.

Gibson and Lizieri are confident that a genuine need is being filled and demand will continue to grow, especially, they say, in the face of a comparatively inflexible conventional property market.

Elliott Chase