The emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region show huge potential for the growth of flexible office space.

Piers Mallitte, Asia Pacific head of Savills’ flexible office advisory division, Workthere, says: “There are some exciting developments in the emerging markets across the region and it will be interesting to see which develop into established and mature markets and compete with the likes of Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.”

Workthere operates across 11 global markets including India, Singapore and Vietnam. Its team of workspace experts can advise across any aspect of the flex sector: finding space on behalf of an occupier, filling space on behalf of an owner or operator or managing the space itself.

Across the region, occupiers are faced with a horde of domestic, regional and local players. Mallitte says he is more often seeing major occupiers awarding mandates for their flex requirements, just as they do for traditional office space.

“There is an increasing awareness of flex space and its diverse offerings, from global desk pass memberships to one million sq ft managed deals. This demonstrates flex is here to stay and will continue to contribute towards the global office market and, more importantly, be an effective, efficient tool for businesses,” he says.

The biggest of the Asia Pacific flex office markets is India. Savills data show flex workspace operators accounted for more than 17% of India office take up in the last year, more than 10 million sq ft.

Mallitte says large tech and other global occupiers seek managed flex space which can accommodate large and shifting requirements. Operators such as Tablespace and Smartworks are leading this charge with clients such as Microsoft, Google, Shell and Philips taking on large offices and even entire campuses.

He says: “India is an entirely different beast to the other global markets. Occupiers are signing up for as much as a million sq ft of flex space – you simply don’t see that anywhere else.”

Vietnam and Thailand have seen substantial growth in flex office space over the past decade, alongside both nations emergence as manufacturing hubs. Meanwhile Malaysia, in particular Kuala Lumpur, is emerging as an attractive location for Singaporean and Hong Kong companies looking for cheaper office space and labour. “We expect to see more movement in Kuala Lumpur over the next 24 months,” says Mallitte.

The other large emerging markets in Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines, also have huge potential, especially the Philippines, which is a growing centre for outsourcing, particularly call centres and customer service centres which need 24/7 operations.

Workthere, which has its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, is not ignoring developed markets. Australian cities such as Melbourne and Sydney have a plethora of local and international operators who continue to grow, while Singapore has several homegrown operators, many of which are linked to major developers. Major players include The Work Project, Justco and Bayspace.

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Workthere

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Piers Mallitte