2023 State of Coworking

This 2023 conference presentation set out selected results from the 2023 Global Coworking Survey for Coworking Europe in Porto on 28 November 2023. It examined the commercial performance and development of coworking spaces, with particular attention to for-profit locations. The slides reported the proportions of spaces that were profitable, broke even or operated at a loss, and compared profitability with earlier survey years, including the period before the COVID-19 pandemic. They also presented profit margins for profitable locations and noted that some operators did not require individual locations to generate a profit for the wider business to succeed. The presentation described the structure of the sector through the age of spaces and the number of locations operated by each coworking business. Its analysis considered how profitability varied with a location’s age, floor area, membership, occupancy rate and the number of sites in a chain. A separate chart showed the relationship between occupancy and financial performance. The presentation concluded with a survey result on operators’ principal business problem, identifying the attraction of new members as the most frequently reported challenge. Yardi Kube and Nexudus were identified as supporters of the survey, but the slides did not name the research author or presenter.

Key findings

• Among for-profit coworking spaces surveyed in 2023, 52% were profitable and another 27% covered their costs.
• In 2023, 58% of coworking businesses operated one location, 33% operated two to nine locations and 9% operated at least ten.
• Attracting new members was identified as the biggest problem by 51% of coworking spaces surveyed.

Presented at Coworking Europe 2023