Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - UK based Workthere, a website listing platform and brokerage services,has entered the Vietnamese market to help businesses find flexible, co-workingand serviced office spaces in a country where co-working has expanded rapidly.

Like manyothers, Workthere sees the potential of the market. Last year, there were about60 co-working spaces in Vietnam. Between 2018 and 2019, realty firm Savillsreported the supply of co-working space increased by 64 percent.

The risein the number of co-working locations across Vietnam has been driven by thegrowth of start-ups. As more than 30 percent of the population are under 34years old in Vietnam, co-working spaces offering a unique work environment canhelp attract talent to join organisations.

Nguyen Hoai An, director of Consultancy Services at CBRE Vietnam, told Viet NamNews that as millenials account for 91 percent of clients in localco-working spaces, much higher than the global average of 67 percent, morefirms are bound to join the market to meet demand.

It alsomeets the need for cost-effective spaces of small- to medium-sized (SMEs),which account for more than 90 percent of local enterprises.

Accordingto the National Agency for Business Registration, in the first nine months ofthis year, more than 100,000 new businesses were registered in Vietnam, a 5.9 percentyear-on-year increase. 

Co-workingwill undoubtedly continue to evolve to match the economic and business cycleand respond to changes in the way millennials work, said Bui Trung Kien,Associate Director of Commercial Leasing Savills Hanoi.

YannDeschamps, head of Workthere Asia Pacific told Viet Nam News: “Demand forflexible office space in Vietnam will continue to be driven by freelancers,local and international start-ups, and small corporates. Internationalstart-ups, digital nomads and freelancers seeking affordable workplaces couldalso consider relocating to Vietnam to grow their businesses.”

Thegrowing market includes local names like Toong, Up, and Dreamplex, CoGo as wellas foreign operators like Regus (UK), Hive (Hong Kong), CEO Suite (the Republic of Korea), and Klouds (Singapore) and WeWork (US).

Expandingto Asia, last year WeWork, as the hottest name in the co-working market, openedits first facilities in HCM City and plans to open 10 nationwide. A WeWorkinsider declined to tell Viet Nam News any more detail about currentextension.

However,on her Facebook, she posted an image of an ongoing construction with the WeWorklogo and a caption “new kid on the block".

Savillsexperts said in this year, other co-working spaces opened more than 10facilities in Vietnam, adding that if WeWork missed the current time ofdevelopment, it would be left behind.

Localexpanding to the region

With moreforeign footprints in the Vietnamese industry, local start-ups seeopportunities in regional countries.

Togetherwith the facilities in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang, Indochina Capital-backedToong has run a co-working space in Vientiane, Laos since June and plansanother for Cambodia.

Hoai Pham, marketing director of Toong told Vietnam News they definitelyexpanded to the region because of its huge potential. They already receivedbooking order even as the construction work there had not yet finished.

Accordingto Hoai, Laos and Cambodia have a smaller start-up community than in othermarkets, so most of the customers are foreign companies.

Localco-working space company UPGen with the backing of the RoK-based NorthstarGroup expanded in the region with new locations in Bangkok, Thailand and KualaLumpur in Malaysia, said Dang Phuong Linh, marketing head of UPGen, adding thatthe firm prepared to enter Hong Kong and Singapore “soon”.

Currently,UPGen operates 80,000 sq.m of spaces in 21 facilities including 18 in Vietnam,with top Vietnamese tech companies like Tiki, BE Group and Yeah1, and StandardChartered as its tenants.

Linhtold Viet Nam News: “We see the opportunities in fast developing marketslike Jakarta, Manila and Myanmar.” 

The companyis also a strategic partner of commercial lender VPBank./.