Have you heard the term coworking? What about a shared workspace? As start-ups, small businesses and independent contractors look to cut costs, the latest trends in office space provide the best workspaces with reduced overhead. Lower costs and high-tech amenities are a benefit to the people renting office space. So what is a shared workspace, and do they make good investment properties? Let’s find out.
The idea behind coworking is to bring together a diverse array of businesses, entrepreneurs and freelancers to help foster collaboration and innovation. Makes perfect sense, right? Bringing the brightest minds in business together instead of keeping them walled off in separate offices.
As an investor, any new trend is an opportunity for growth, so you might be wondering how you can take advantage of the rapid growth of coworking. A key component of coworking is the shared workplace, and new businesses to the area are likely to be clamoring for modern, open real estate that can be used as a shared workplace.
Before you can know whether a shared workspace is the right investment property for you, it would help to define what a shared workspace is. The Balance explains shared workspaces are “turn-key office solution providing an office space shared by other companies or professionals.” The idea behind coworking is to bring people together and to do that you need an office with the right features.
Shared workspaces generally feature open floor plans, modern aesthetics, onsite amenities like coffee shops and babysitting as well as plenty of shared spaces where individuals can meet, network, and collaborate.
Other shared workspaces allow for several businesses to inhabit the same office space but stagger their hours. Each renter receives the benefit of a business address as well as an office, but with limited hours they also pay less for using the space.
This is about as far from the traditional office space as you can get. In a shared workspace, the goal is often to foster collaboration, so the typical cubicle layout is nowhere to be found.
So how do businesses and individuals make use of these shared workspaces? In that regard, it’s not all that different than a traditional office. Businesses can rent spaces and individuals can rent desks and make use of all the shared amenities.
For the right investor? Absolutely, yes. This coworking trend is just taking off, and it’s expected to grow from roughly 11,000 shared coworking spaces in 2017 to over 26,000 spaces by 2020, many of which will likely be in the entrepreneurial hub that is South Florida. You can do the math; there is going to be a big demand for shared workspaces in the very near future.
Does that mean you should immediately jump on it? Not necessarily. Business trends can come as quickly as they go so there is a chance, however small it might be, that businesses could pivot away from the shared workspace model.
There is inherent risk in any investment real estate venture, and you rarely find a good opportunity that’s also 100% safe. All we know for sure is that right now, it looks like coworking is a trend that is catching on quickly and embraced by most.
Contact us at Ullian Realty today for more information on investing in real estate in the Melbourne, FL area. Our unique real estate process in addition to over 50 years of combined experience in the real estate business puts us a step ahead of the rest. We will help choose the perfect investment property for your needs. Please contact us at 321-729-9900 or info@ullianrealty.com today to learn more.
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