The amount of space leased by flexible office providers in Dublin fell 73% year-on-year from 410,266ft² in 2018 to 109,710ft² in 2019, according to a new report from Workthere.ie – Savills serviced office brokerage service and website listing platform. According to the latest data, this was predominantly due to 2018 being an anomaly in terms of flexible office space take-up, with exceptionally high levels of this type of space being acquired during the year. Further to this, the take-up figures recorded for the second half of 2019 were inevitably impacted by only two of the original seven planned WeWork deals progressing.
Michael Healy, Director, Savills Ireland and head of Workthere.ie commented: “The take-up volumes of flexible space recorded in 2019 reflected more normalised levels, which Worktehre.ie expect to continue throughout 2020.”
While the overall levels of take-up were lower than the previous 12 months, the average number of desks per enquiry received by Workthere.ie increased from 9.7 in 2018 to 12.2 in 2019 – reflecting a global trend in which flexible offices are more frequently being used by larger companies that require more desks on longer contract terms.
Elsewhere in the report, Workthere.ie reveal that 27% of companies that leased flexible office space in 2019 were new entries to the Irish market. Other reasons listed for take-up of flexible office space were a requirement for temporary office space (16%) and the requirement for additional space (14%). Reasons stated for flexible office take-up:
|
New entry to Irish market |
27% |
|
Requirement for temporary office space |
16% |
|
Requirement for additional office space |
14% |
|
New business |
14% |
|
Unsatisfied with current arrangement |
8% |
|
License Expiry |
7% |
|
Other |
14% |
