Michael Tchao, a 37-year-old creator of food education videos, says he likes a few things about his usual coworking spot in Vancouver.
There’s the “really good” furniture and many power outlets. There’s more security than a coffee shop or public library, allowing him to leave his belongings unattended. There’s also sparkling water, cold-brew coffee and kombucha on tap in a large open kitchen.
WeWork Inc.’s space at 2015 Main Street also offers networking opportunities.
“I’ve met some really cool people who are now a part of my network and part of my friend circle who are helpful to me in my business,” Tchao said.
Following their disruption of the traditional office lease model, coworking spaces have become entrenched in the local commercial real estate and beyond. Globally, the number of coworking locations has grown 47 per cent since 2022, and the number of coworking space users has grown 61 per cent, according to Avison Young (Canada) Inc.
While the COVID-19 pandemic forced an office real estate re-think, several factors may limit the future growth of the coworking sub-sector. For example, Vancouver’s average coworking “desk” costs $575 per month, making it Canada’s most expensive major city for coworking, and putting desk sale prices in the top quartile globally, said Avison Young.
The firm said Vancouver’s premium pricing reflects not just the city’s high real estate costs but also its status as a major Pacific technology hub. But with desk prices higher than those in Seattle and Portland, there is a risk of losing customers to peer cities.
Still, coworking spaces in the region have a strong business case, said Blair Quinn, Vancouver-based vice-chair with CBRE Ltd.’s High Technology Facilities Group.
“The proposition is a finished, furnished solution for a company, whether they be one person or an enterprise company with 500 people,” he said.
“Someone could literally plug-and-play in a day or with 30 days’ notice. The big value proposition is that tenants don’t have to sign long-term leases, don’t have to get a big capex budget from their head offices, and can grow quickly without tying themselves down.”
Alongside WeWork, other local coworking space providers include Vancouver-based Pavilion Cowork and Swiss-based International Workplace Group PLC (IWG), which has a portfolio of brands including Spaces, Regus and HQ.
One common feature is that members, whenever they are on the move, can generally use any location in their provider’s global network, with bookings facilitated by a smartphone app.
“If I’m in a meeting in downtown Vancouver, I might drop into another centre to maybe do some emails or something after a meeting,” said Cliff Pipke, principal of Informa Financial & Insurance Services Inc., which is based out of IWG’s Spaces-branded workspace at West Broadway.
“I’ve even used it in other parts of the world,” he added. “When I’ve been in Lisbon or been in Barcelona, I’ve definitely sometimes dropped in.”
Pipke’s company is a niche insurance brokerage with a team of eight. He had his own standalone office space years ago, but wanted lower maintenance costs, he said, as well as IWG’s premium furniture, location and views of the North Shore mountains.
His company locked into a three-year contract in 2023, and opted to upgrade to an enclosed office that offers separation from other businesses, while maintaining access to common areas and the networking they afford.
But flexibility can come at a price.
CBRE’s Quinn said coworking users generally pay roughly double a traditional lease on a gross basis, though customers can save through lengthier terms and an à la carte menu of business services, such as mail delivery and copy and print.
“It’s a pricey proposition, and if you are going to be in a city for years, then it’s going to cost a lot less over time by having a longer-term lease,” he said. “It depends on your horizon as a company.”
If a corporate customer wins a major contract and needs to expand for 12 to 18 months, coworking could allow them to take expansion space on another floor to manage a one-off contract without altering current lease commitments.
Sometimes, large users cut uniform lease agreements that cover multiple coworking locations in order to secure loyalty pricing and conduct repeat business.
“Like Aeroplan — if you stick with one airline, you get benefits,” Quinn said.
Coworking expected to survive
During and in the immediate wake of the pandemic, there was less appetite for working in shared spaces or for maintaining expensive and underutilized office footprints.
This hit coworking spaces, including WeWork, which emerged from bankruptcy leaner and in better financial shape last year, after the New York-headquartered company shed its non-performing assets and whittled down its portfolio.
Currently, the market appears to be growing, and companies such as IWG are focused on growing their presence in suburban markets, said Terri Pozniak, executive vice-president and Canada country manager for the firm.
“Eighty per cent of our new properties are going in those suburban areas close to the home, closer to the employees, so they are able to work in that hybrid format that everybody wants,” she said.
For this reason, IWG has five locations in Surrey alone.
“One in Surrey is not enough. We need to be everywhere, we need to be as close to everybody’s homes as possible, so our biggest challenge is dots on the map,” she said.
Coworking is likely to benefit from enterprise demand, return-to-office mandates and a larger “shift to agile consumption,” said a March 2025 analysis by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).
With commitments typically less than 24 months, “tenants can achieve greater flexibility and better synchronize footprints with space demand,” according to JLL’s report.
With the pandemic and early growing pains in the rear-view mirror, Quinn said he thinks the coworking model is strong again, supported by workers returning to offices. “I think it’s growing again, I think people are coming back to work again, and I think that coworking is here to stay,” he said.
