Office search in Southeast Asia: which country the entity belongs in, then which space
Opening in the region raises a question no country page can answer: which of the three the company should be registered in. Asia Relocation scopes the workspace and the market together once that is settled, serviced office, coworking or lease, sourced and negotiated on the ground in Thailand, the Philippines or Vietnam.
An office is chosen twice: once on the floor plan, and once more every morning when the staff try to reach it. In Southeast Asia it is chosen three times, because before the floor plan comes the country. Where the entity is registered decides what it may sign, whom it may employ and what the landlord will ask for, and none of that is the same in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Companies opening in Asia tend to discover this in the wrong order: a space found, a lease drafted, then the question of whether the company yet exists in a form that can sign it. The regional search runs the other way: the entity first, the same requirement scoped in each country in play, and only then the visits, in the market chosen.
Asia Relocation has placed arriving companies across Asia since 2011, with consultants in each of the three countries who know the developers, landlords and serviced-office operators, and who carry the business visas and staff relocations that follow an office, on the same file.
What the search carries in any of the three, and what runs beside it
The same work in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam; the paperwork that lets a company sign is not.
Carried by the service
- The country comparison: the same requirement, headcount, term, format and budget, scoped in each market in play, with the entity conditions each imposes.
- The brief: what the company will do from the space, who will sit in it, where they will live, and the address the letterhead needs.
- A shortlist from our own contacts in the country chosen, developers, landlords and operators, with the reason each option is on it.
- Visits and negotiation: on site or by video, then the lease or membership negotiated, read in the local language where it is written in one.
- Signature and the first week: entity documents assembled for the landlord, the handover, fit-out or move-in coordinated.
Quoted per country, in writing, before the first visit is booked.
A different service
- The people who will sit in it. Their visas and work permits are visa and immigration files, run alongside in each country.
- Their homes. The staff arriving to fill the office need home search and, first, temporary housing.
- Moving the existing office. Desks, servers and a switch-over weekend are office relocation, not a search.
- Incorporating the entity. We read what the landlord will ask of it; setting the company up is your counsel's work.
One Asia Relocation coordinator holds these beside the search.
Four ways to take space, and where each exists
The same search in the three countries; what changes is the commitment.
Serviced office
Furnished, connected and staffed at reception, in a business centre that handles the building. The answer while the company incorporates and needs an address, in all three countries.
Coworking membership
Desks or a small glazed room in a shared hub, by the month. For a founder and a first hire, or a team not yet sure which country it will grow in.
Private office, leased
A floor or a suite in a commercial tower, your name on the door, your fit-out. For a company that knows its headcount and term; the lease deserves reading twice, and the landlord's questions about the entity come first.
Commercial space, bought
An office asset rather than a lease, for a company or an investor. Available in the Philippines and Vietnam through our country teams; a different file, with its own conditions on who may own.
Five steps from the country question to the keys
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The country, and the entity
Which of Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam the company belongs in, and in what form it will exist there. We read what each market's landlords will ask before any space is considered.
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The brief, scoped per market
Headcount, term, format, budget, where the staff will live. The same requirement priced in each country in play, so the comparison is real.
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The shortlist and the visits
In the country chosen, options from our own contacts, visited on site or by video with our consultant in the building, compared in writing.
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The negotiation
Lease or membership terms negotiated by us, the local-language text read, the entity documents assembled for the landlord, signature.
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Move-in, and the people
Fit-out or handover coordinated, and the visas, homes and temporary stays of the staff who will fill the office, on the same file.
Four companies whose first question is the country
Each ends up on a country page, starting here with Asia Relocation holding the comparison.
The company entering Asia
A first presence in the region, two or three countries on the table. The same requirement scoped in each turns the board's question into a decision.
The company opening a second country
Already in one of the three, now opening a branch in another. A different market and paperwork, under the same coordinator and reporting.
The founder who needs an address before a lease
A serviced office or coworking membership while the entity is registered, then a lease when headcount and term are known, wherever the company lands.
The mobility team moving people with the office
HR and mobility managers for whom the office is the smaller half of the file: the staff who will sit in it need visas, homes and a first month, in the same country.
Three countries, three answers to who may sign
The comparison a country page cannot make, with the door to each.
In Thailand, the question a foreign company does not expect is whether it is allowed to sign: a registered entity, a tax identification, a corporate seal, and for promoted companies the conditions of their investment certificate; the capital's business districts each carry a price, a commute and a kind of client. In the Philippines, serviced offices, coworking, long leases and the purchase of commercial property, in the capital's business districts and two further cities, through a network of developers, landlords and operators, with business visa and work permit on the same file.
In Vietnam, serviced offices, coworking hubs and corporate headquarters across three business hubs, purchase possible, consultants in English, French and Vietnamese. In all three, Asia Relocation reads the entity paperwork before the first visit, and quotes per country.
What companies ask before choosing a market
We have not decided which country to open in. Is that a question for you?
Can a foreign company sign a lease anywhere in Southeast Asia?
Serviced office, coworking or a lease: which comes first?
Do you handle the visas of the people who will work there?
Who runs the search on the ground?
Can we visit spaces before we have a local team?
Is a branch in a second country the same search again?
How is an office search priced?
What follows an office, and the whole offer
The office is found; now the homes of the people who will fill it
One brief per household, searched in the country the entity has chosen, lease or letter read before signing.
Home search in Southeast Asia →The whole relocation service
Home, school, office, temporary housing, cultural and language training across the three, and which of them your market entry needs.
Relocation services in Southeast Asia →Tell us the headcount and the countries on the table
Asia Relocation scopes the same requirement in each, reads what each market's landlords will ask of the entity, and runs the visits where you choose.
Scope an office search →