The impact of COVID-19 on the coworking industry has led to several wide-ranging consequences, with many operators still straining to navigate the effects of closures, dwindling occupancy rates, and overall less demand.
However, with hope on the horizon as certainties and a probable vaccine develop, more people are beginning to develop interest in coworking and make plans for a safe return to flexible offices in 2021.
After monitoring and gathering insights from our web traffic at Coworker in every quarter of 2020, search traffic for people looking for “coworking” online has nearly recovered to its January 2020 highs after a sharp, pandemic-induced decline in early April.
Since this decline, search traffic for coworking has seen a linear recovery week over week that is now reaching near all-time highs on Coworker.
This illustrates that interest in coworking has returned to pre-pandemic levels and is on the rise, even as certain markets such as Spain face reintroduced lockdowns.
Positive signs for coworking recovery
While traffic has recovered, it is worth noting that leads and transactions are still down by roughly 30% globally. This is indicative of the fact that enterprises are developing their plans to utilize flexible workspace in the future, but are not ready to tour and commit to new spaces yet.
“The data is clear: there is extraordinary pent-up demand for flex spaces as corporations look to de-risk their headquarter costs and homebound workers look forward to getting back into professional workspace outside of their residences,” said Sam Marks, CEO of Coworker.
“We expect to see traffic and interest in coworking to surpass the previous January 2020 highs before the end of the year, with global leads and deals to grow sharply as soon there is more certainty around the availability of vaccines,” said Marks.
Based on recent metrics, Coworker predicts global demand will climb another 40-50% from where it is today by as early as Q2 of 2021.
