44. Key Takeaways From The LiquidSpace Flexible Office Report

Liquidspace recently released a Flexible Office report. I kept opening it on my computer to read through it and couldn’t get to it. So then I had a lightbulb that if I was having a hard time making time to read it, maybe I should do my audience a favor and give them the highlights on their commute. Here is a link to the report.

 First some quick context - Liquidspace is a platform where one can find meeting space by the hour or workspace by the month or for any term up to three years. They have over 2800 workspace listings on their website and app and have facilitated over 2.9 million transactions for 64,000 teams.

 Here are my key takeaways:

 While coworking is the hot industry term, flexible office space includes more than just coworking.

Liquidspace reports that over 30% of the public listings on their platform come from private businesses who are sharing their extra space. They also report that landlords are jumping in and the amount of Direct Landlord space doubled in the last year and now account for 7% of the publicly available supply. The report focuses on this a fair amount, seeming to highlight that this is a significant shift on the supply side and will be a new segment of competition on the supply side.

 The report breaks down flexible space users by segment:

• Tech users make up 41%

• Consulting 24%

• Finance 10%

• Media 7%

• Real Estate 6%

• Marketing 4%

• Non-Profit 4%

• Accounting 4%

The report highlights that it’s not just freelancers looking for flexible, shared workspace. 40% of the demand in the Liquidspace network is for spaces to accommodate teams of 5+. 12% of teams are looking for space for 15+, and numerous companies are searching to accommodate 100+ employees.

Page 9 of the report has a helpful bar chart! Comparing average rents per person by major city. The footnote explains the data: “Average Rental Rates are calculated by dividing the asking rental rate by the maximum capacity of each space. When no spaces are available, prices are based on historical averages.”

 New York City tops the chart at almost $700 per person. Philadelphia and San Francisco are next at almost $600/person. Surprisingly, Seattle and Tampa are close behind San Francisco. Dallas and Houston are the lowest at a little less than $200/person. This seems like a surprising range differential. One explanation for this wide range may be that the LiquidSpace data may include a mix of “desk” rent and “office rent.” If the data skews to “desk rent” in a city, that would certainly lower the per-person price compared to a space with high office density.

 That’s the end of the report. Again, we’ll post a link to download the report in the show notes at archiveeverythingcoworking.dream.press/44.

 In our next episode, we’ll cover highlights from a report recently released by Davinci Virtual Office Solutions - also including industry data and focusing on meeting room and virtual office use.

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