Hunting for an office for rent or a piece of commercial real estate to call your own is a very different experience than it has ever been.
Since 2005, the office space landscape has been evolving dramatically and the workplace we used to know is now a virtual, flexible, portable arena for so many workers. The future of commercial office space is now for office employees across the country and across the globe.
The Office of Tomorrow Today
The coworking space is a familiar trend for many freelancers and small companies, but the trend has exploded to more than 3,000 spaces worldwide as of 2013.
Companies have been renting extra desks out to help lower overhead and even subleasing unused space as they send more employees home to participate in virtual offices. Executive suites are still an option as well, and are quickly coming back into fashion for telecommuters and traveling workers who are looking for high class, private, working spaces with no commitment.
These different office spaces give flexible workers more options than ever before, whether they prefer a quiet corner to yourself or a wide-open common area to share with other people in their field. With the advancement of mobile technology, you can literally work from anywhere, using a host of devices and be just as productive as your office-chained contemporaries of 20 years ago. Coworking spaces and their ilk are just the beginning of what’s coming for the flexible workforce.
Flexible Spaces Can Weather Economic Storms
Coworking may be a relatively new trend, but this idea was born of the worst recession we’ve known in modern times and has staying power behind it already.
The flexibility of these new working spaces are also their advantage—they’re inexpensive, they only require short commitments and are thus perfect for small businesses looking for a little bit of office space in a commercial real estate environment that’s filled with increasingly longer leases and more expensive fees.
By providing workers with attractive spaces with WiFi and telephones where they can work with teams or by themselves, companies like WeWork that offer hybrid coworking spaces and Regus, an executive suites provider, are future-proofing office work and ensuring that small businesses and freelance workers can continue to afford office spaces outside of their homes. Not only is that amazing for those small businesses and their long-term health, it’s awesome for commercial real estate as a whole.
The next time you’re thinking about renting a small office space, it might be a good plan to look into some coworking or other flexible offices for rent. You’ll get all the support and culture of a regular office with all the benefits of being your own boss—the office of the future is a total win-win.