Ask any commercial broker how they compare a ten-year lease against a serviced office down the street, and you’ll usually hear the same answer: badly. The two live in separate systems, separate databases, separate habits. This week, that started to change.
A platform built to stop the juggling act
Rubberdesk, the flexible-office marketplace founded in 2016 by CEO Jim Groves, has launched BOLTA, a standalone SaaS platform aimed squarely at brokers. The name spells out who it’s for: Brokers, Operators, Landlords, Tenants and Agents. The pitch is simple. Instead of running one search for traditional leases and another for serviced or managed space, brokers get both in a single workflow.
According to Rubberdesk, BOLTA launches with pricing and availability data for more than 2,600 serviced and managed office buildings, pulled from its existing global inventory. Operators and leasing agents list their space for free. Brokers use the platform to shortlist options, handle tenant briefs, produce branded reports, and book viewings without leaving the tool.
The pricing model is worth flagging: brokers pay £365 a month per seat, while landlords, operators and leasing agents on the supply side use the platform for free, and Rubberdesk takes no cut of any deal done through it. That’s a different bet than most flex marketplaces make, since they typically monetise through commission.
The team behind BOLTA isn’t new to recognition in this space. Rubberdesk’s AI-powered search tool won Technology Initiative of the Year at the Flexible Space Association’s 2025 Awards, a win confirmed by FlexSA’s own event coverage, which listed Rubberdesk as the sole winner in that category at the November 2025 gala.
Why brokers needed this now
The case for BOLTA rests on a market that’s genuinely changing shape. Rubberdesk points to its own data showing UK flex office supply up 32% year-on-year in 2025, with managed office supply specifically more than doubling, rising 101% over the same period. Independent industry commentary has echoed the broader trend: managed and flexible space has been the fastest-growing segment of the office market for several years running, even as traditional leasing volumes have stayed comparatively flat.
Founder Jim Groves has said the idea for BOLTA came from watching other brokers already using Rubberdesk to source space for their own clients, since the company had already cracked the transparency problem of knowing what was available, where, and at what price. The remaining gap, in his view, was putting leased space and flexible space on the same page a tenant actually reads.
There’s a broker-side story here too. The brokerage model has fragmented, with more independent tenant reps setting up on their own, while larger firms have historically lacked tools built to span both leased and flexible inventory at once. BOLTA is a bet that brokers who can show clients the full market, rather than only the slice they know best, will win more of that business.
What it means for the rest of the market
For landlords and flex operators, listing on BOLTA for free is a low-cost way to get in front of brokers who might otherwise only think in lease terms. For tenants, it means an advisor can realistically compare a five-year lease against a twelve-month managed suite in one report, rather than treating flex space as an afterthought bolted onto a leasing search.
It also fits a pattern worth watching: proptech investment in this sector has increasingly targeted the people standing between supply and demand, not just end users. Booking tools for operators are now well established. Tools built specifically to make brokers faster across both leased and flexible stock are newer, and BOLTA is a clear signal of where that’s heading.
The takeaway
BOLTA is a single product launch, but it’s a useful marker of how far the line between “traditional” and “flexible” office space has already blurred for the people who actually broker deals. Whether it becomes the tool brokers reach for by default, or simply pushes competitors to build something similar, the direction is the same: tenants want their options side by side, not siloed by property type.
