The Secret to Flex Office

Opportunities for both established and new landlords

Due to the fractured nature of property ownership across a large landscape like Greater London, producing meaningful and cost-effective research is challenging. Unsurprisingly, the major property research houses concentrate their flex office studies within London’s key office markets across the West End, the City and East London.

With a crowded flex offer in these main markets, opportunities abound outside of these areas for landlords willing to add this relatively new and lucrative asset class to their portfolio.

Novice flex office landlords need not be timid as it is more than likely they can operate a flex office offer within their current business model.

Scalability and PTAL

Amongst the most important elements of a successful flex office offer is scalability and a high PTAL (Public Transport Accessibility Level) rating.

As with most investments, correct scale is key to ensuring a business runs profitably and effectively. Defraying costs over a larger area is going to be more attractive, provided demand is deep enough to ensure occupancy remains high. Demand elasticity enables landlords to manage this tension moving them from being a price taker to a price maker when churn increases without a simultaneous response in take up.

This is the antithesis of the traditional property leasing model but it enables landlords to move the anchor of non-recoverable costs from their profit and loss statement.

Another key factor in determining the success of your flex offer is understanding the PTAL rating on you chosen flex office location. Put simply, this rating is influenced by the proximity of your location to public transport accessibility – the higher the rating, the greater the likelihood you can attract your target market.

My background in managing a large portfolio of flex office space means I can evaluate whether this is the model that will deliver the best return on your investment.