For growing numbers of employees across Europe's big cities, heading into the office no longer entails sitting at the same desk, next to the same colleagues each day. As more companies of all shapes and sizes choose turn to flexible space – whether its hot-desking areas in buildings they already occupy or taking space in independently owned coworking set-ups - it's fast becoming part of modern working life and a small but increasingly significant part of Europe's office markets. Europe's flex space footprint has doubled since the start of 2015, according to JLL's report. In 2017 alone, flexible space grew by 29 percent, adding around 620,000 square meters.

Given the dynamic changes occurring within organizations and the evolving business environment, the old office models are no longer working. At the same time, the market, which has in recent years experienced a strong increase in supply on the one hand, and a significant transformation of the labour market, e.g. evolution of work styles, on the other one, is more and more willing to welcome new workplace strategies.

How do you incorporate the creation of an office into your business strategy as to support the growth of the organization and those that form it? Karolina Dudek from the Office Agency department at BNP Paribas Real Estate and Szymon Boniecki and Bartosz Rega from Monterail provide answers in a market report to be published in September.

The ability to analyse how a building is used and to adapt the indoor environment accordingly is a clear example of a trend that is not only here to stay but will only grow in importance. By simply monitoring occupancy, building managers and owners can reduce costs and increase lease income. At the same time, occupants can enjoy a series of features that make their lives easier and allow them to work more productively. Proptech company Spaceti, which will be featured at Prague Property Forum 2018, introduces its solutions.

A new report by Colliers International and international law firm CMS has found that one-third of professionals in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) believe their workplace will change over the next 2-3 years. The firms’ second annual report, ‘CEE Office Real Estate Compass: Is your workplace Millennial-ready’, looks at the changing nature of the workplace in CEE and includes a survey of 72 CEE-based professionals drawn from the spectrum of geography and seniority.

Modern technology has revolutionised the way we work and significantly altered the leasing process. Andrej Leontiev LL.M., Partner at Taylor Wessing analysed current trends on Bratislava’s office market from a legal perspective.

Spaces, a global concept from the Netherlands and offering solutions from the area of flexible workplaces and co-working, has leased 4,200 sqm of office space in Centrum Marszałkowska. As a consequence, Warsaw will become the brand’s first location in Poland. Experts from JLL advised Spaces on the process of negotiating lease terms. Baker & McKenzie supported the company in all legal aspects. The developer of Centrum Marszałkowska - BBI Development - was represented by CBRE and Markowska - Materla law firm.

Hong Kong has replaced London’s West End as the most expensive office market in which to accommodate staff, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield. At a global level, the average annual cost per workstation rose by 1.5% over the last 12 months. Workplace density – the number of workers within a given space – has also increased in 2017.

The growth of the start-up culture and the high-tech sector, leading to an ever larger number of projects that require swift staff reorganisations, has sparked a boom on the Polish market of co-working space and serviced offices, as revealed by real estate advisory firm Savills in its latest report Flexible Workplaces in Poland.

Tenants in 2017 are looking for a lot more than four walls and a couple of cubicles. Developers and the owners of older schemes will need to adapt to the changing needs of occupiers in order to stay in the race. Our panel of tenants, landlords, developers and advisors at CEE Property Forum 2017 talked about what makes an office attractive in 2017 and what it will take to secure new leases and keep existing tenants happy in the years to come.