Co-working is challenging the traditional business model of property brokers although direct competition has not yet emerged, according to Rajeev Thakur, the senior managing director of US brokerage GCS. He said the market would not completely shift to the co-working model and that brokers were beginning to treat co-working space as just another workspace option. Prior to that transaction, however, Newmark performed strategic location analysis to determine the optimal city for that client’s expansion and was subsequently hired to broker the lease agreement, collecting a commission from WeWork. “People are starting to see it more like a place where they can work on their own projects or have access to other people who might be interested in doing similar things with them,” Thakur said. Over time, he added, internal competition may encourage the co-working market to offer longer leases, and he said no one yet knew how co-working would cope with an economic downturn.
Co-working is challenging the traditional business model of property brokers although direct competition has not yet emerged, according to Rajeev Thakur, the senior managing director of US brokerage GCS. He said the market would not completely shift to the co-working model and that brokers were beginning to treat co-working space as just another workspace option. “People are starting to see it more like a place where they can work on their own projects or have access to other people who might be interested in doing similar things with them,” Thakur said. Over time, he added, internal competition may encourage the co-working market to offer longer leases, and he said no one yet knew how co-working would cope with an economic downturn.