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Coworking spaces has been commoditized. Every major metro area has a dozen local companies offering coworking spaces. So unless you need the same membership to

Coworking spaces has been commoditized. Every major metro area has a dozen local companies offering coworking spaces. So unless you need the same membership to work in very different locations, you'd just join any of the local companies near home.

pclmulqdq 3y ago
Coworking space has always been a commodity. It existed before WeWork, too. WeWork just made it cool.
- makestuff 3y ago
  Yeah I remember Regus office space commercials well before WeWork offering single offices/flex spaces. They even had shared reception you could subscribe to.
jillesvangurp 3y ago
Exactly, and more is on the way. There are a lot of empty / underused offices right now and the easiest way to try to monetize all that real estate is co-working, flex desks, sub leases, and other forms of short term usage. If it's empty, it's not generating any money. Finding space is easy right now. I think prices are still a bit inflated given the amount of vacancies. They have to come down a lot for that to start changing. But you can get some really nice bar gains if you invest a bit of time. Over the next few years, a lot of leases are coming up for renewal and I'm guessing a lot of companies are looking to reduce the amount of square meters they have and what they pay for that.
- Probiotic6081 3y ago
  They should be converted to apartments instead imo.
  - usrusr 3y ago
    Apartment buildings have very different surface to volume ratios. There are only so many square feet you want per window, assuming conventional layouts. Of course there's always the "disused industrial floor loft" approach to living, but that requires exceptionally rich tenants and/or exceptionally low rent expectations. Chances are most office buildings have higher operational costs than the rent that could be collected that way. We'll see a lot of decay, building operators trying to make ends meet with ever cheaper office tenants, before informal factory floor type conversions happen. Wouldn't be surprised if, very much unlike those old factory floors, buildings are well beyond effective service life by then. (because architecture has become depressingly good at being on schedule in terms of design service life)

pclmulqdq 3y ago

Coworking space has always been a commodity. It existed before WeWork, too. WeWork just made it cool.

makestuff 3y ago
Yeah I remember Regus office space commercials well before WeWork offering single offices/flex spaces. They even had shared reception you could subscribe to.

jillesvangurp 3y ago

Exactly, and more is on the way. There are a lot of empty / underused offices right now and the easiest way to try to monetize all that real estate is co-working, flex desks, sub leases, and other forms of short term usage. If it's empty, it's not generating any money. Finding space is easy right now. I think prices are still a bit inflated given the amount of vacancies. They have to come down a lot for that to start changing. But you can get some really nice bar gains if you invest a bit of time. Over the next few years, a lot of leases are coming up for renewal and I'm guessing a lot of companies are looking to reduce the amount of square meters they have and what they pay for that.

Probiotic6081 3y ago
They should be converted to apartments instead imo.
- usrusr 3y ago
  Apartment buildings have very different surface to volume ratios. There are only so many square feet you want per window, assuming conventional layouts. Of course there's always the "disused industrial floor loft" approach to living, but that requires exceptionally rich tenants and/or exceptionally low rent expectations. Chances are most office buildings have higher operational costs than the rent that could be collected that way. We'll see a lot of decay, building operators trying to make ends meet with ever cheaper office tenants, before informal factory floor type conversions happen. Wouldn't be surprised if, very much unlike those old factory floors, buildings are well beyond effective service life by then. (because architecture has become depressingly good at being on schedule in terms of design service life)