A look inside the plush co-working spaces built for home-workers in Manchester flats

The new city living trend is helping to cater for the rise in home-working and hybrid work set ups.
Dock 5 at SalfordDock 5 at Salford
Dock 5 at Salford

New tenants at a build-to-rent apartment development in Salford don’t need to worry about blurring messy kitchens from their Zoom backgrounds when they work from home - nor need they feel too isolated without office colleagues.

The newly-unveiled Dock5 flats in Ordsall have built-in communal spaces for young professionals to take their laptops and work alongside fellow residents.

Dock 5 co working space at SalfordDock 5 co working space at Salford
Dock 5 co working space at Salford
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The shared space at the ForLiving development has clearly proven popular, as all the 120 flats were rented out by Savills within three weeks. John-Paul Case, head of Northern Metropolitan Lettings, said: “This is a fantastic scheme from a highly professional team, and tenants have recognised the quality of accommodation and the community first approach from ForLiving.”

The concept taps into a broader trend over the last 18 months, with Rightmove reporting earlier this year that estate agents had seen a 326% surge in buyers and renters searching for ’office’, ‘workspace’ and ‘working from home’ in property listings. There was also a 90% spike in renters looking for ‘outbuildings’ or ‘annexes’ online.

Dock 5 in Salford co-working spaceDock 5 in Salford co-working space
Dock 5 in Salford co-working space

Tim Bannister, Rightmove property data expert, said then he believed the trends would become a permanent thing: “Working from home is here to stay for many, perhaps not full-time but certainly a few days a week, and so it looks like the trend of home-hunters settling for a make-shift place to perch a laptop has been replaced with a more permanent need for space being added to their property checklist.”

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