FMO sector benefiting from current financial turbulence

New research suggests that the Business Centre and Flexible Managed Office (FMO) sector is proving to be far more resilient to the current financial market turmoil than predicted. 

Defying some market expectations, the sector is demonstrating buoyancy, resilience and some growth – at the expense of the more traditional commercial property market.

The findings are contained in the latest Research Note to be released by the leading fund management consultancy for the FMO sector, Business Centre Capital Company.  It suggests that, far from being vulnerable in a volatile market, users are choosing to stay in what is regarded as a stable, controlled and manageable environment.  At the same time, total occupancy is actually increasing – as major corporates and larger firms opt out of more expensive permanent premises, to cut overheads and create additional flexibility.

B3C Managing Director, Jonathan Price says, “The sub-prime crisis and the consequent credit crunch has applied pressure across the banking and investment market.  The natural assumption would be that alternative asset classes – such as flexible offices – would be first in line to suffer, but this does not seem to be the case.

“The FMO sector has been showing long term structural growth for some time and the calibre, profile and diversity of tenancies – public, private sector and professional - has only served to strengthen its appeal”, says Price.

The B3C study picks on six important effects which it has observed – including the apparent attraction for investors to seek safe harbour and spread risk within a sector which is proving more stable than others.  The full text of B3C’s Research Note, ‘The Impact of the Sub-Prime Crisis on the Flexible Managed Office Market’ is attached – and can be downloaded from the B3C website, www.b3c.bi

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