This post really underlines my own experience of trying to find an office space for a startup in London. There are so many sharks out there, and everyone tries to get you to sign a 3 year (or more!) lease. We might not be around in 6 months! But co-working spaces are sometimes just as bad, especially the ones which are basically just feeder funnels for landlords who want you to upgrade to one of their serviced offices / large units (looking at you, ClubWorkspace). I think what Spacious is doing is really cool therefore - and I'll definitely be trying out the service when our current office space expires at the end of March :)
roel_v|12 years ago
What kind of premium were you prepared to pay for this risk to the owner? If your answer is <10%, or even <50% depending on the actual amounts we're talking here, do you find it irrational that you had trouble finding an office?
tmwatson100|12 years ago
In our experience we have found that there ARE spaces available for companies such as Chris' that have little idea of where they will be in 6 months time. At the end of the day, startups and becoming more and more commonplace and the demand for space with contract flexibility is going up with it. It is up to landlords and operators of space to decide how they react to this. They can either ignore it, leave the space open until their find their 5 yr client. Or they can attach a slight premium to the space and rent it for a more flexible term.
In general, we have found that space operators and landlords and increasingly accommodating for this and are attaching a risk premium. It may not be as high as 40% but there is something there. They achieve this by paying rent on a sq ft basis, but letting out the space on a per desk basis. If you do the maths, you can achieve a relatively attractive spread assuming x% occupancy.
We believe that Spacious can help liquidity in the market by making landlords and space operators confident that if they react to shorter contract lengths, they won't have to worry about long periods of vacancy as a potential tenant would be able to find them easily.
mattmanser|12 years ago
That they'll have to pay advertising again?
Because if you don't move in, it's still empty.
Gusfoo_2|12 years ago
I didn't find it hard. We got a serviced office near Farringdon tube via a broker. (flexi offices) after looking at about 10 places in the arc from there to Old St. Signed a 1-year lease with a 6-month break, just in case things went south.
atoosh|12 years ago
We have received a lot of feedback from those who have found it difficult, especially to do this online and that's what we're trying to fix.
logicallee|12 years ago
lol for honesty.
tmwatson100|12 years ago