The significance of the five year point post-Covid lockdown isn’t lost on me. The end of March 2020 saw whole offices close overnight, and doors not reopen for almost two months. That was a devastating moment for the office market, or flexible space industry, as it’s now known. And of course, a pivotal moment for the way we all work moving forwards. 

 It also forced a complete step change. There were many who said the office was dead and home working was the future. An industry that was once a pivotal part of the nine to five now needed to evolve to secure its place in the future of working life.  And in the UK, the sector did just that, impacting the future of work in a way we’d never seen before.  

 Fast forward to March 2025, and the UK flexible space market is huge. London alone has over 5,000 flex offices that are available to rent today. A report this week showed that London’s workspace market is growing more quickly than New York’s [City AM]. Of the capital’s office market, our figures suggest that almost a third of it is made up of flexible workspace. This growth highlights a significant shift in how businesses and employees are approaching work, with flexibility becoming a cornerstone of the future workplace. 

I’m pleased to say the industry has grown very quickly to meet these customer needs. Being a “people first” industry isn’t just a tagline – it’s how flexible workspaces have become so pivotal to working life and how it evolves over time; by understanding how we work best and adapting to suit the needs of a changing workforce. For example, like the hotel market, the flex market is becoming more amenities driven. 

The variety of options available to tenants is huge – we’ve identified over 135 Flex Brands in UK today  and each has a different style and offering. There’s a real spectrum of options, and each offer different desk size, quality of fitout and building, services and amenities and inclusions. In some, everything is included, while in others, everything is pay as you go. Whatever a tenant’s taste there’s a flavour of flex for them. This is reflective of the general direction the working world is taking, a move towards customisation, flexibility and adaptability.  

The growth of the industry in the UK has been led in part by the fact that the office broker network (who act like estate agents for commercial offices) are very plugged into what flexible options there are available to customers. In other countries, the appetite for brokers to recommend these kind of options has been slower, as they haven’t moved away as quickly from the traditional leases (and therefore ways of working) they are used to brokering. 

Five Years Later

Five years post-lockdown, there are seven clear ways that flexible space talks to the needs of its clients in the UK, ensuring it’s closely connected with the success of the businesses and working people located within:  

  • For scaling businesses who outgrow their current space and need a bigger office within the term of their agreement – the flexible space operator will help you move to the right workspace within their network, enabling their people to do their best work.  
  • For companies who lack certainty over what headcount looks like next year thanks to these new ways of working – operators offer one-year term agreements. Those kind of terms were almost unheard of a decade ago. 
  • With the rise of hybrid working, many firms need fewer desks day-to-day but access to overflow space for when the whole team come into the office, perhaps for an all-hands meeting or just for a gathering. Flexible space offers access to additional areas to handle this surge capacity. 
  • Flex can help companies to set up offices to cater to the diverse needs of a workforce, ensuring spaces are inclusive and accessible. That’s a crucial part of catering to the needs of a successful team. 
  • For SMEs who are laser focused on running their day-to-day business, the space you work in can be fully managed so that’s something off the leader’s to do list.  And if you don’t want to pay for and manage a fit out of your office, flexible space offers “off the rack” already fitted out spaces. 
  • Many firms also need somewhere for their teams to gather on the road, or when meeting clients in other cities. Flexible operator networks offer consistent brands and easy to manage remote booking and access, so you know what kind of space and service getting wherever you are in the country (or even, globe). The digital nomad is born.  
  • And if you need an occasional boardroom, flexible operators offer Space as a Service, meaning that you can “Pay as You Go” for services needed now and again. 
  • For scaling businesses concerned about privacy, today’s premium flex operators have evolved significantly. Early coworking spaces raised legitimate professionalism concerns, but modern operators now deliver both privacy and professional environments with high-end amenities matching or exceeding traditional offices—all without requiring long-term commitments. 

This adaptability, while perhaps fuelled by adversity, has evolved into a significant advantage of working in a flexible environment. The sector’s rapid response to the constantly changing landscape of post-Covid work practices has been remarkable. The diverse range of available workspaces serves as a testament to the growing shift toward flexibility and adaptability in how we approach work.