Flexible Office Space Bahrain 2019
The office market in Bahrain has remained largely subdued over the past few years. The impact of economic slowdown is well reflected in the case of Bahrain’s real estate. Rental decline was observed in the key office markets such as Bahrain Financial Harbour and Seef where the average rents dropped by 8% y-o-y. A sustained supply addition and less active occupier demand has resulted in a tenant’s market. This has prompted some existing landlords and developers to offer generous incentives to retain and attract existing and new tenants respectively. Consequently, companies are ramping up their efforts to accommodate employee needs, including a more flexible and collaborative work environment.
Flexible office spaces including co-working, though still at a nascent stage in the region, is now considered a disruptor of the office real estate landscape. The current flexible office space landscape is largely dominated by domestic players or niche operators. It occupies a relatively smaller share of the completed office stock across established markets. According to Savills estimates, in London - which is the biggest co-working market in the world - co-working spaces accounted for 7.6% of total office stock in Central London at the end of 2018. In Bahrain, there’s a strong entrepreneurial culture. Indeed, the start-up scene is expanding at a rapid pace and there’s an incredible support network and ecosystem for start-up companies which have grown by 46.2% over the past three years. There are currently 119 innovative start-ups within the growing StartUp Bahrain ecosystem, as well as 34 accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces, and government entities to support. In addition to this, Bahraini-based “Al Waha” closed $100 million fund of funds to invest in technology start-ups.