Purpose

Coworking space had been a trajectory in the commercial space operation and management globally. Commercial coworking/tenancy space is confronted with an unexpected shift. This paper aims to examine the peculiarity and investment characteristics of flexible office space and the post-COVID implications on coworking office space practice and investment. This is with a view toward providing investors with an understanding of the dynamics underpinning flexible office space investment in the Nigerian emerging property market.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted a qualitative research approach. Open-ended interview questions were used to solicit information from nine coworking space operators in the urban property market of Ibadan, Nigeria. The structured interview data were analyzed using Atlas.ti – a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software.

Findings

The findings show that the factors influencing demand for flexible office space in the study area include flexibility, affordability, cost-effectiveness, entrepreneurship motivations and opportunity for risk sharing. The results also revealed that coworkers are predominantly mobile individuals who require a workstation away from their homes or a traditional office setup. Management challenges include deficient infrastructure, low level of awareness, stealing and high cost of operations. The impact of COVID-19 includes a drop in patronage, rent refunds, changes in working pattern and job loss, restriction to online and remote operation, the extra cost of putting prevention measures in place, changes in tenancy contract and drops in return on investment.

Practical implications

This study has implications for investors in commercial space occupation and leases in comparable developing economies.

Originality/value

The novelty of this paper lies in its relevance with the emergent behavioral changes, orchestrated from the novel COVID-19, which compels reevaluation of workplace practices and investment for economic improvement, especially as it relates to commercial real estate investment.

中文翻译：

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探索城市办公空间管理的投资范式：来自尼日利亚联合办公空间投资者的观点

目的

共享办公空间一直是全球商业空间运营和管理的轨迹。商业联合办公/租赁空间面临着意想不到的转变。本文旨在研究灵活办公空间的特殊性和投资特征，以及后 COVID 对联合办公空间实践和投资的影响。这是为了让投资者了解支持尼日利亚新兴房地产市场灵活办公空间投资的动态。

设计/方法/方法

本研究采用定性研究方法。开放式面试问题用于向尼日利亚伊巴丹城市房地产市场的九家共享办公空间运营商征集信息。结构化访谈数据使用计算机辅助定性数据分析软件 Atlas.ti 进行分析。

发现

研究结果表明，影响研究区域对灵活办公空间需求的因素包括灵活性、可负担性、成本效益、创业动机和风险分担机会。结果还显示，同事主要是移动个人，他们需要远离家的工作站或传统的办公室设置。管理挑战包括基础设施不足、意识水平低、盗窃和运营成本高。COVID-19 的影响包括客流量下降、租金退款、工作模式的变化和失业、对在线和远程操作的限制、采取预防措施的额外成本、租赁合同的变化以及投资回报率的下降.

实际影响

这项研究对可比发展中经济体商业空间占用和租赁的投资者有影响。

原创性/价值

本文的新颖之处在于它与新的 COVID-19 精心策划的新兴行为变化相关，这迫使重新评估工作场所实践和投资以促进经济改善，尤其是与商业房地产投资有关的情况。