This could be the perfect solution to Hong Kong’s pricey office leases
This could be the perfect solution to Hong Kong’s pricey office leases
The island’s office sector is in for a shakeup
Hong Kong’s office sector is in for a shakeup as a new co-working space player comes to town with a subversive proposition.
Taking cue from hotel booking sites — it bills itself the “Expedia of offices” — The Work Project offers co-working space in Causeway Bay with rates that vary every month according to demand. Occupying four floors of the Midtown Soundwill Plaza 2, The Work Project’s Hong Kong space can accommodate more than 300 people across 74 private offices and 80 hot desks.
“We don’t want to be just another co-working space,” company founder Junny Lee told the South China Morning Post. “We want to help companies lower the monthly committed rent.”
The choice of Hong Kong as the first area of service for The Work Project is not arbitrary. Office leases in the Chinese SAR rank among the world’s priciest, with prime space being rented out for an average of USD278.5 per square foot per year, according to Knight Frank’s most recent Skyscraper Index.
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Lee hopes to differentiate his company from typical co-working space providers with more transparency on pricing and inventory, similar to hotel reservation sites. “The world has moved on but office leasing remains in the Stone Age,” Lee said.
Inflexible office leases and other overhead costs cause the average monthly rent paid by companies per employee in Hong Kong to soar to HKD10,000 (USD1,300), Lee told the Post. With a six-person office and four hot desks on The Work Project, for example, that number can drop to HKD6,600 (USD850) a month for 10 employees, he claimed.
Co-working arrangements are growing in popularity in Hong Kong. WeWork leased to HSBC last week around 300 hot desks at Tower 535 on Jaffe Road, the largest corporate tenancy in a Hong Kong co-working space to date.
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Source: Property Report