Bangkok’s supply of coworking spaces has been growing quickly. This year alone, five operators have opened 10 new facilities across the city. Some coworking spaces vary from 1,000 to 3,400 square feet throughout the city, while other operators have grown more exponentially. Prominent operators, such as WeWork and JustCo, are totaling about 30,000 square meters among their facilities that are expected to open next year.
These ambitious projects have been challenging due to the lack of prime office space in Bangkok. Because of this, many new coworking spaces are finding homes in unfinished offices.
Although coworking spaces are known as a hub for startups and entrepreneurship, this growth is mostly contributed to corporate users who are now using these spaces as alternative workspaces.
“Short contract commitments and individual membership structures allow companies to quickly accommodate changes in headcount and support mobile workforces such as sales or project teams, and remote-working employees, more efficiently and cost-effectively,” according to the Bangkok Post.
Despite these corporations simply looking for an alternative office space, the growth of coworking spaces is significant. Researchers indicate that Southeast Asian coworking spaces and serviced offices have grown by “40% in the last three years and now make up 2% of total office stock, from less than 1% in 2015.” This growth is on par with the rest of the Asian Pacific, which shows a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.7%.
