US coworking space to set up shop in HCMC

In its latest report on the co-working space market in Vietnam, real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) said WeWork is looking to open an office on Doan Van Bo Street in District 4.

The company recently did market research and customer surveys, JLL said.

The office, to open in December, will be the largest co-working space in Vietnam at 5,000 square meters.

JLL said the entry of global real estate startups is a positive sign.

WeWork, valued at $20 billion last year, was one of the largest startups in the U.S., behind only Uber and Airbnb, and the sixth largest in the world. Founded in 2010 it has 250,000 employees.

It had acquired Chinese coworking space firm Naked Hub for $400 million last April, expanding its reach into the Asian market.

WeWork reported a rise in losses in the first half of this year to $723 million from $154 million a year earlier.

But JLL estimates it would continue to expand.

It said in its report: “We think Wework is likely to have a presence in most of the six Southeast Asia cities within the next 12 months. In addition, the company is likely to grow in terms of number of locations within each city as well.”

Vietnam has seen the coworking space market expand in recent years.

Major local operators like Toong, UP, Circo and Dreamplex are all expanding at an accelerated rate, and the number of smaller operators with just one venue is also increasing.

The Hive, a coworking space maker from Hong Kong, is planning to open a new facility by the end of this year in Ho Chi Minh City. The company already has one office on Xuan Thuy road in District 2 in the same city.

Real estate consultancy CBRE said the number of coworking offices in the country has grown by an average of 55 percent in the last five years.

Most operators reported a very healthy 75-80 percent average occupancy rate as of last April.