ATLANTA—Corporate real estate managers are quickly getting on board with the concept of co-working space, according to a survey by CoreNet Global and Cushman & Wakefield. A majority of respondents worldwide said they'd lease co-working space to help manage their organizations' real estate needs, joining Microsoft, GE, Salesforce and other large-scale adopters of a concept popularized by tech startups.

Fifty-two percent of respondents in North America said they'd lease co-working space, with 50% of Central and South American respondents and 56% of Europeans saying the same thing. In the Asia Pacific region, 70% endorsed the co-working model.

“When we talk to our businesses, their crystal ball is reasonably clear for three months, it starts getting cloudy in six months and it is harder to forecast what the business will look like in five to seven years,” Kevin Sauer, workplace strategy leader at GE, is quoted as saying in a new whitepaper released by CoreNet Global. “So, from a traditional corporate real estate model, we're sandbagging the business by signing them up for a long-term lease in space that may or may not suit their business needs after move-in.”