Offices today are almost the polar opposite of what they were a decade ago, from the way they are designed to how people interact in them.
Now, workspaces have started fostering collaborative opportunities for colleagues, offering creative amenities, hospitality services and integrated technology. Thanks to this evolution, one of the primary industries to emerge was coworking.
According to Matt Hoffer, Cushman & Wakefield Tenant Advisory Group Director, flexible office providers grew in popularity once office design started moving away from cubicles and embraced open communal spaces.
“Coworking has solved some of the most perplexing problems plaguing tenants in the quest for office space,” said Andrew Nadhir, Director of Operations at coworking firm Sevenco. “It has allowed tenants to circumvent the complexity of leasing traditional office space — a six- to 12-month process that locked them into the space for five to 10 years.”
The huge boom in demand for coworking spaces is mostly due to the emergence of Millennials taking up the majority of the workforce. The expectations of this generation has driven developers to create platforms and amenities for these tech-savvy workers.
PropTech has also made a name for itself in the past decade and has forever changed the real estate industry.
“We see the beginnings of workflow automation everywhere, the explosion of new datasets, the willingness of such players to work together for the first time, and the rapid experimentation and adoption of new technology across the board,” said L.D. Salmanson, CEO at Cherre.