Residential hot-spots in London’s ‘Doughnut’ Boroughs see substantial increase in demand for flexible office space

According to research from Workthere, the London Boroughs and residential hot-spots that sit in the doughnut around the capital’s centre, have seen a significant increase in demand for flexible offices with searches increasing by 669% in Clapham, 413% in Harrow and 327% in Stratford, Lewisham, London Fields and Tottenham respectively*. The flexible office specialist says that this rise in interest for serviced and coworking space outside of Central London is a clear indicator of businesses and, in particular, individuals wanting a workspace option closer to home.

This is further supported by the fact that Workthere’s October sentiment survey showed that demand for UK suburban flexible office space accounted for over a quarter of total demand.

Cal Lee, global head of Workthere, comments:

The trend of wanting to combine a workspace closer to home with going into a main central office has inevitably been accelerated over the last eight months and we are now starting to see this start to come to fruition with demand levels rising for more suburban locations.

Despite the fact that demand is increasing for these less central London borough’s, Workthere notes that Clapham currently only has two existing co-working spaces currently in situ, whilst Stratford has four and Wimbledon only one.

Cal Lee, Global head of Workthere, comments:

Central London is and will continue to be a leading global hub for flexible office space with large and independent providers well represented across the City and West End markets. However, given that demand levels for more suburban locations are increasing by such substantial levels, we would expect to see more of these names also look to establish a presence in wider London Boroughs and take advantage of the current supply / demand imbalance.

*Figures based on an index of searches on Workthere website for flexible space pre and post lockdown ( pre lockdown is 1^st Jan 2020 until 15^th March 2020 and the post-lockdown period is 16^th March 2020 until 26^th August 2020).