Abu Dhabi-based CLOUD Spaces, which operates a coworking space at Yas Mall, is set to reveal expansion plans, primarily surrounding growth in the UAE, but ultimately taking the pilot concept across the region.
Launched last year in Yas Mall, the project, which is being spearheaded by Aldar and offers memberships and fully furnished workspace options on hourly, weekly, monthly and annual plans, is riding the wave of remote working popularity in the current Covid era.
Malak Smejkalova, general manager, told Arabian Business they had amassed over 300 registered clients – ranging from corporates, employees, start-ups and even students – a third of whom are permanent, from industries as diverse as design to construction and oil and gas to engineering.
She said: “We are working on a plan of expansion and scaling up. We are working on the World Trade Centre (Abu Dhabi) as one of the locations we’re looking to. In the near future it is mainly the UAE definitely, but we’re looking at the region as well. That’s all still under plans.”
The global coworking space market is expected grow from $7.97 billion in 2020 to $8.14bn in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.1 percent. The growth is mainly due to the companies resuming their operations and adapting to the new normal while recovering from the Covid-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges.
The market is expected to reach $13.03bn in 2025 at a CAGR of 12 percent.
“With the pandemic we’ve seen a greater shift in the way people are looking for a workspace and what are their needs. The flexibility has been so important,” said Smejkalova.
Indeed, a survey last year from JLL, involving commercial real estate decision-makers of large companies around the world, including the UAE, found that 67 percent of the respondents are still “increasing workplace mobility programmes and incorporating flexible space as a central element of their agile work strategies”.
Smejkalova added that the idea to be based inside a shopping mall was one of the company’s USPs and is playing a part in diversifying the offering in malls in the face of increasing competition from ecommerce platforms.
According to a report from Kearney Middle East, the GCC’s ecommerce market is expected to grow from $5.3bn in 2015, to become an almost $50bn industry by 2025.
“Generally around the world it has started to become a norm to have a workspace in a mall. People don’t necessarily need to go into their office so the way that people are working is different and you need flexibility, agility, to get stuff done quickly. You don’t need to sit at a desk to get work done, so in order to save time it would be easier for you to go to a flexible workspace solution and walk there or have a ten-minute drive to your workspace rather than having to go all the way downtown and get work done,” she said.
“In the retail environment you’re also seeing the shift of how that is working. This is where you utilise your underused space.”
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