A private, self-contained floor or suite, fitted and furnished specifically for your team, operated and serviced by a workspace provider. You get a branded front door, your own kitchen, your own meeting rooms and your own layout. The operator handles fit-out, furniture, IT, cleaning, utilities, reception and building management. You pay one all-in monthly fee.

Serviced offices are pre-fitted and standardised, with shared reception, shared breakout and shared meeting rooms. Managed offices are bespoke, private and branded end to end. Serviced is right for teams up to around 50 people on 12 month horizons. Managed tends to suit teams of 20 plus on 2 to 5 year horizons.

A conventional lease gives you the shell, you fund and manage the fit-out, furniture, dilapidations and ongoing services. A managed office bundles all of that into a single operator-delivered package. The operator carries the capex. You pay a higher monthly figure but avoid the upfront investment and the end-of-term dilapidations liability.

The operator, in almost all cases. The fit-out is amortised into your monthly fee across the term. This is one of the core reasons occupiers choose the managed route, no capex drag and no dilapidations liability at exit.

In the UK, Kitt, GPE, MYO and Grosvenor are some of the best-known managed specialists.

In the US, Industrious, Convene, Tishman Speyer Studio and Hines Square all run managed programmes.

In Europe, Mindspace and Zoku have strong managed propositions. Many traditional landlords now also run managed platforms in-house on their own buildings.