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The total area occupied by co-working space operators in the city-state is forecasted to increase further this year and in 2019, with near-term demand driven by startups and multinational firms, reported Singapore Business Review citing data from Colliers International.
“The flexible workspace footprint in Singapore could rise by 30 percent to 35 percent (or by about 670,000 sq ft) year-on-year for the whole of 2018 and a further 20 percent in 2019,” said Duncan White, executive director and head of office services at Colliers.
The property consultancy noted that inventory of versatile office space surged from about 1.0 million sq ft in 2015 to around 2.7 million sq ft in 2017. Currently, there are about 113 existing co-working spaces in the central business district, occupying 4.5 percent of the Grade A office supply there.
“We would expect to see the supply continuing to grow as Singapore is still behind the expected levels of flexible space in the market,” he said, estimating that the ideal proportion for such premises in Singapore’s market is about 6.0 to 7.0 percent.
Colliers thinks that major operators with multiple locations and more than 50 desks per site are poised to benefit from this wave of growth, especially the seven companies that collectively control 63.1 percent of the co-working space supply as of 31 June.
Leading the pack is IWG, which runs the Spaces and Regus brands. Overall, it has approximately 650,000 sq ft of space, translating to a 23.5 percent market share. In second spot is WeWork with 344,000 sq ft of space and a 12.5 percent market share, followed by JustGroup, which holds 331,000 sq ft or 12 percent market share.
Completing the top seven are The Executive Centre (153,000 sq ft/5.6 percent), Servcorp (102,000 sq ft/3.7 percent), Campfire (85,000 sq ft /3.1 percent) and The Great Room (76,000 sq ft/ 2.8 percent).
“The larger global operators are not the only solution for flexible occupiers, but they may be favoured by MNC and the Enterprise Model occupiers due to the scale on offer,” noted White.
As for the remaining smaller operators (about 106), they collectively account for 37 percent of the market share.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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