Data from Office Hub, an online marketplace for flexible office space that operates across Australia and several Asian countries, showed a 105 per cent increase in the number of businesses with 15 or more employees looking for coworking space in 2017-2018.
We are lead to believe that coworking is an open plan, airy space, working with other people. But then there are the major coworking operators such as WeWork and Christies which are basically serviced offices. According to Colliers International property experts, most new coworking spaces comprised of private office suites. Larger companies are now driving the demand to have their staff in coworking spaces as this offers these businesses a way to increase or decrease their office footprint in response to the everchanging conditions in the market. Many of the new coworking spaces now contain discrete lockable offices with their own IT Networks, phone systems and conference rooms. It seems that coworking spaces are now starting to compete with the serviced office space providers such as Dexus and Regus. Both the coworking and serviced office space sectors have evolved a lot, being more like the other. Additionally, landlords are increasingly looking at coworking as a way to attract tenants. Landlords are realising client want the flexibility to expand and retract as project-based teams are needed. New industries are also adopting elements of the coworking ethos - to bring disruption to outdated models.
Popup-coworking reclaims the unused spaces that are closed during the day and turn them into pop-up coworking offices. Due to its nature, Popup-coworking is cheaper than standard coworking and pay-as-you-go. Perfect for entrepreneurs on a budget, early-stage startups, freelancers, remote workers and the new breed of digital nomads. Popices, which launched on 1st February 2017. is currently only available in Amsterdam but its plans to pop-up in other cities across Europe soon. Its first spaces include Metobolic Lab – an office boat nestled amongst the creative community of De Ceuvel.