Review 73rd Swiss Real Estate Talk: "Coworking for Corporates?"

"Is the office property mutating into an operator model?" asked moderator Markus Schmidiger from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts at the beginning of the latest Swiss Real Estate Talk at Zurich's Metropol restaurant in front of around 120 interested guests.

Revolution or paradigm shift?

Florian Kuprecht of CBRE Switzerland was of the opinion that a revolution in the office space market was definitely on the horizon, or at least a paradigm shift. Last year, 40,000 companies were founded in Switzerland with just 50,000 employees. Many start-ups and small companies are among them and are demanding new concepts on the office market. In addition, many companies are increasingly working in project groups, which require a correspondingly innovative and creative ambience. "Networking in the world of work is becoming increasingly important, both digitally and in real terms," Kuprecht summarized, citing an important argument for coworking spaces, which have also existed in Switzerland for a few years.

Currently, the Confederation has more than 200 coworking locations. Most recently, the growth rate in this segment was around 15 to 17 percent. According to CBRE estimates, this therefore only affects less than one percent of the local office space market. However, depending on the radius, an absorption rate of five to ten percent by providers of flexible space can already be found in the vicinity of Zurich's main train station, according to Kuprecht.

Strategic reasons for "coworking

For Garry Gürtler, Swiss representative of international business center operator IWG, it is clear that digitalization is the big driver of the coworking trend. "This has an impact on both the habits of employees and the space management of employers." But he says there are also purely strategic and also financial reasons for large corporations to go the coworking route: "Large companies need greater flexibility to quickly cover large geographic spaces in different countries," he says. Coworking spaces are ideal for this purpose. Another aspect for companies, according to Gürtler, is the new IFRS 16 leasing standard.

IWG has been active in Switzerland for 25 years with its Regus business center brand and has diversified its offering in recent years with various brands. Now, with the Spaces, No.18, OpenOffice, Signature and Basepoint concepts, it offers coworking worlds for different needs - from young start-up entrepreneurs to a more upscale and older business clientele, says Gürtler.

Swiss Life follows the trend

Finally, Giorgio Engeli from Swiss Life Asset Management showed some practical examples of coworking concepts. The insurance group also sees marketing opportunities for flexible office space and currently has several projects in the pipeline. For example, in cooperation with Village Office at Tessinerplatz in Zurich, in collaboration with OfficeLab in Baden and at Blandonnet-BIRD in Geneva-Vernier near the airport.

On Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse, Swiss Life is setting up a coworking office floor specifically for women together with the company WeSpace. With "The One Zurich," another project with flexible, high-quality office space will soon follow on Seefeldstrasse at Tiefenbrunnen station, according to Engeli. He also sees "TicTricTrac" in Zurich's Binz as very suitable for a coworking concept for corporates. There, a good 15,000 square meters of office space would be available for flexible use from 2021. "We think it's possible that this will work there," Engeli said with conviction at the Swiss Real Estate Talk.

Presentations:

Florian Kuprecht, CBRE (Zurich) AG

Gary Gürtler, International Workspace Group

Giorgio Engeli, Swiss Life Asset Management AG