Flex: Friend or foe to the traditional office market?

The flex sector is seeing increased demand from large corporates for flexible space, well beyond the typical use cases of market entries, speed, and small offices. Take central London, where JLL’s Flex team has been involved in 78 live instructions so far this year. Flex has been used as the bridge to support occupiers who are repurposing or relocating into better quality spaces, while continuing to provide highly amenitised and productive work environments. Demand remains dominated by the technology and finance sectors, which account for 68% of JLL’s total number of flex transactions in London.

As occupiers continue to fine-tune their return-to-work policies while trying to understand their ideal footprint, we’ve seen flex playing a tactical role, particularly in London, where most transactions completed in 2023 are being leveraged for terms of two to three years.

While demand from large corporates will continue to support the flex market, small to medium businesses are still the core drivers. Flex plays a stronger strategic role in their business growth and enables them to access high-quality, well-located offices often not available through traditional leases. That being the case, we expect a large share of requirements up to 1,000 sqm to move towards flex solutions.

Flex continues to be a vital piece of the puzzle in supporting all types of occupiers, both tactically and as part of a wider real estate strategy. By enabling optimised office occupancy, providing amenity driven spaces and allowing organisations to quickly adapt to changing demands, the flex sector continues to be crucial for the overall market.

With the return to office in full swing and a constrained pipeline of grade-A quality space coming to market, it's clear that traditional office leasing and flex will remain friends, not foes, for the foreseeable future.