Legal & General is aiming to double its amount of flexible space offerings by the end of the year, spying a “massive opportunity” post-lockdown for the sector.
L&G office sector lead Andrew Mercer said the company has opened and leased 26 Capsule spaces – its flexible office offering – and has plans to grow this to 55 by the end of the year.
“We have another 14 available now and on the market, and 15 under construction and coming to the market during 2020. There will be 55 Capsule suites let or available by year end,” he said.
Mercer said coronavirus had helped “speed up” the development of Capsule, where the company turns its empty office space or “voids” into flexible office space.
While Mercer said the serviced office market will be “challenging” in the short term, especially for providers that have short leases and offer a co-working model, it poses a “massive opportunity” for businesses in the medium term as the world emerges from lockdown and enters a tougher economic climate.
“Where these serviced offices do really well is in recessions, where you are going to see some redundancies coming through and people start setting up on their own,” Mercer said.
“If they can get over this initial period… there is no doubt that their potential is huge.”
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