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MatchOffice has just released its latest report into the European serviced office market covering Q1 2016, which makes encouraging reading for flexible workspace operators across the continent.
Featuring a total of 689 serviced offices across Europe, MatchOffice has expanded on its 2015 survey and uses last year’s data as a benchmark to highlight various performance indicators, such as workstation price, contract length and occupancy.
Its current data suggests that Germany is leading the way with a high proportion of centres listed at 90% occupancy and above, while France is faring less well with rising prices and falling occupancy rates.
However, the picture across Europe as a whole is encouraging. According to MatchOffice analysis, around 80% of serviced offices in Europe have maintained or increased last year’s considerably high occupancy rates. Almost one-third of respondents reported occupancy of 90% or above, with almost 80% reporting that contract lengths have either remained the same or increased since last year – suggesting further take-up of flexible workspace by corporate firms.
Jakob Dalhoff, CEO of MatchOffice, commented: “The overall conclusions of our survey fully confirm my personal impressions when I visit business centres all over Europe. The real estate industry over the past years has been moving in a very positive direction, which has created a significant increase in the demand for and number of new serviced offices.
“More companies than ever are moving into business centres, and we can only expect this trend to continue throughout 2016.”
Key highlights of the report include:
- The German serviced office market leads the way with “great stability and potential for the coming year”, demonstrating increased occupancy rates and rental values. Almost half of respondents (45%) report occupancy of 90% or more.
- Responses from Belgium, centred mainly around Brussels and Antwerp, shows generally stable price levels and an increase in occupancy. Most Belgian operators report a ‘positive’ or ‘very positive’ outlook for the rest of 2016. Italy and Denmark also report stable results, suggesting a generally positive outlook for the rest of the year.
- Sweden has an “extremely positive outlook” with a marked rise in centres with 90%+ occupancy rates, and increases in both rental values and contract lengths. Likewise the Netherlands has seen an increase in occupancy rates, price and contract length.
- The Spanish market is described as “encouraging”, with serviced office providers expecting static or higher prices, and holding an overall ‘positive’ outlook for the rest of 2016.
- At the other end of the spectrum, France reported low occupancy rates: they have fallen on average since 2015 and outlook indicators suggest that providers expect them to drop further. MatchOffice believes this could be related to rising price levels, with 30% of providers experiencing higher rental values year-on-year. Looking ahead however, operators expect prices to plateau which could help the market to stabilise over the coming months.
MatchOffice provides further analysis in its news release. The full report can be downloaded here.
Do you have a serviced office or flexible workspace in Europe? Allwork.Space is keen to hear from operators in Europe as part of a series of reports into the region. Contact the editors to discuss your current performance and your outlook for the year.
