A new independent survey of 250 UK office landlords has revealed the most popular types of office conversions as the sector moves to increasingly flexible approaches to space.

Re-purposing traditional office space into flexible or co-working space was the most popular type of conversion (11%), ahead of hospitality (10%), retail outlets (8%), and residential property (7%).

This comes as almost a quarter of landlords have converted their traditional office space into flexible or co-working spaces over the past two years, and one-in-five plan to do the same in the coming two years.

When questioned about their greatest motivations for converting into a flexible workspace, over half (57%) of landlords said that aligning with current market trends was the most popular answer.

This was followed by keeping pace with competitors (54%), enhancing the value of their property (43%), maximising revenue from empty or underutilised space (40%), and future-proofing assets (35%).

Wybo Wijnbergen, chief executive of infinitSpace – the firm which conducted the survey – says: “If it wasn’t already clear, these results show that the traditional office model has and will continue to evolve rapidly. As many traditional office spaces face low occupancy rates, it has never been more important for office landlords to adapt.

“So, it’s positive to see that most landlords recognise the importance of upgrading their portfolio to keep pace with the rapidly evolving demands of UK office workers – as well as of of course boosting revenues and property values. For many, that looks like converting into flex space.”