Representatives from some of the city’s prominent flexible workspaces, including those from FigFlex, UBC, Spacemade, Bruntwood, x+why and Runway East, met in Birmingham last week to discuss the sector’s recent performance and share learnings with one another.
The regional meet-up was organised by the Flexible Space Association (known as FlexSA) – the trade body for flexible workspaces across the country. It comes as the latest report from Savills shows that Birmingham’s office market performed exceptionally well in Q3, achieving a 165% year-on-year increase, making it the top performing regional market.
Six regional hubs are tracked by Savills – Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester – and there were rises across all regions. In fact, Q3 saw the highest third quarter office take up since 2018, at 38%.
Bringing together FlexSA member offices from the city centre and surrounding area, the meet up also gave attendees the chance to tour two Birmingham workspaces. These included x+why in Colmore Row, which also has a private members club with a large roof terrace, offering city-wide views.
The second flexible workspace was Runway East in the Arca building, which opened in July this year and also boasts a roof terrace.
Jane Sartin, executive director of FlexSA, commented: “Our Birmingham meet up came at a pertinent time for the region, with a strong sector performance as our backdrop. The city’s energy and enterprise always shines through in discussion in the city, and there were a lot of positives, with strong occupancy levels reported, and particularly high levels of meeting room bookings. With new workspaces anticipated in the city, there’s a lot more to come from the market.”