WeWork only has to sneeze to grab the headlines — it is one of the most talked-about companies in global real estate today.
But it makes up only a very small proportion of the London and U.K. flexible office market.
In fact, according to a new report, big names like IWG, WeWork and The Office Group make up a far smaller part of this growing market than you might imagine, as is the case in other major markets like the U.S.
Small, independent flexible office space operators make up 83% of the London market, according to data from Instant Group. For the U.K. as a whole the figure is 88%.
WeWork manages just 2% of the flexible workstations available in London, Instant said, although this figure will grow as it opens the offices in its large leasing pipeline.
IWG has the biggest London market share with 8%, followed by Workspace with 6%, London Executive Offices with 3% and The Office Group with 2%.
The sector is growing rapidly. Instant said the number of flexible offices in the U.K. grew by 10% to 5,230 in the last year, equating to 824,000 new desks available. There are now more than 2,800 companies that offer flexible workspace as part of their portfolio.
In London the flexible office sector has grown by 25% in the past two years and now totals more than 20M SF across 1,300 locations.