Co-working drove demand for office spaces in 2017

It made up 20% of major relocations and expansions in the market.

Co-working spaces emerged as a "hotspot" driver of demand towards office space and took up 300,000 sqft of the total in 2017.

According to Knight Frank, this amounted to approximately 20% of all major relocation and expansion activities in the office market in 2017.

Major take up include WeWork taking up 56,000 sqft of office space in Suntec Tower 5 and JustCo taking up 40,000 sqft of office space in UIC Building and 70,000 sqft at Marina One.

KF Office Advisory executive director and head Calvin Yeo said, "A trend to watch is co-working centres catering long-term arrangements to an increasing group of traditional office space occupiers who are switching to this new community workstyle."

Moreover, KF said the government's push for fintech growth helped drive demand for office space.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced a $27m grant for a dedicated fintech hub in the Central Business District at 80 Robinson Road, which will host fintech startups.

"The potential growth of the fintech industry is expected to drive demand for office space," Yeo added.