HSBC becomes WeWork’s biggest tenant

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HSBC will relocate 1135 of its London employees to a WeWork co-working space, making it one of the US-based workspace firm’s biggest tenants.

The London-headquartered bank has signed a multi-year agreement with WeWork, relocating over 1000 employees to WeWork’s facility in the Waterloo district in central London. The location has a capacity of over 6000 desks and is anticipated to open in phases between July and October this year, it was reported in the Financial Times.

New York-founded WeWork is riding the rising tide of collaborative work spaces, along with rivals like Impact Hub, Regus, Knotel and Convene.

WeWork takes on take on long-term leases on buildings in city centres and refurbishes the space with modern amenities and plush meeting areas to attract tenants on rental contracts for shorter periods than standard office space agreements.

Given its stature as a global financial hub, London is an important city for WeWork. According to real estate services company JLL, flexible offices will make up around 11% of London office spaces by 2023.

According to Patrick Nelson, WeWork’s head of property for Europe, one- third of the company’s London clients are comprised of large business customers.

“If you look at future sales and where that goes in the next two or three years, that number is increasing,” Nelson was reported as saying.

A report by Coworking Resources has revealed that almost 1700 new co-working spaces will be opened worldwide in 2019. The number of co-working spaces is expected to grow more than 40% in next three years – reaching almost 26,000 globally.

Founded in 2010, WeWork has grown at break-neck pace in recent years and has more than 500 locations in almost 30 countries – the deal with HSBC is its biggest in Europe to date.

WeWork offers a diverse suite of private offices and desks, with costs varying depending on the jurisdiction. For example, a desk in Mumbai can be rented at US$150 but would cost around $400 in London.