More than five years since the first wave of the Covid pandemic, the UK office market remains in flux. While some employers remain happy to take out traditional longer-term leases, an increasing number of companies are seeking shorter-term, flexible arrangements, hence the ongoing rise of flexible operators.

Expanding brand: Runway East’s Borough High Street space

Last year, flexible operators acquired more than 1m sq ft of office space, the highest total since before the pandemic, according to Savills. And in the first half of 2025, flex operators took up nearly 500,000 sq ft of space in the UK, the agency says.

Zoe Ellis-Moore, chief executive of consultancy Spaces to Places, says the flex market continues to perform well because “many businesses still don’t want to commit long term”.

The shift to more companies seeking short-term arrangements has led to a dizzying array of players in the flex market, offering a variety of services at different price points.

Research conducted this summer by Spaces to Places reveals that there are 228 flexible office providers with four or more locations operating in the UK. IWG-owned Regus remains the market leader with 196 sites, accounting for 16% of locations among the top 52, according to the study.

Many businesses still don’t want to commit long term
Zoe Ellis-Moore, Spaces to Places

The fastest-growing area of the market is the managed category, where a third-party operator will take a lease with a landlord, then charge an occupier on a monthly basis. Management agreements between landlords and workspace operators made up just 9% of office deals before the pandemic, but now represent 41% of all new transactions, according to Spaces to Places.

Tom Leahy, UK co-head of Savills’ flexible workspace advisory service Workthere, agrees the market is benefiting from firms not wanting the burden of a long lease. “As businesses scale, they either want to raise a load of money, acquire another business or be bought themselves and not have long liabilities,” he says.

So, what’s driving this change? Tom Petryshen, vice-president of growth and analytics at online flex office marketplace Rubberdesk, believes an increasing number of employers want to be based in modern spaces with high-end facilities. “Amenities are important as firms want to give their staff a reason to come into a space that’s comfortable and different from their home,” he says.

Rooftop gardens, onsite gyms and wellness rooms are just some of the facilities being offered by operators.

And despite the rapid expansion in flexible office space coming on to the market, the consensus is that there is still room for growth, even in the popular central London market.

London calling

The capital has the “perfect dynamic” that is not being seen in any other major global city, says Petryshen. “There’s a mix of demand, but also the realisation from landlords with space to let that they need to do something,” he adds.

Leahy pinpoints the City of London as an opportunity for flex operators as more commercial buildings are converted to residential accommodation and hotels.

“With removing [traditional] office stock from the market, there are going to be instances where flexible office space is the only gig in town for some businesses,” he says.

Welcoming space: the reception area at Runway East’s Borough High Street site

Transport links are also proving key. The Elizabeth line, now in its third year of operation, appears to be having a major influence on where employers want to be.

“Companies are saying they will consider anything along the Elizabeth line,” says Leahy. “It’s so fast and efficient, it’s in people’s minds.”

As such, some areas along the line such as Farringdon in central London have benefited, while others have suffered. As Ellis-Moore says: “People now see Farringdon as the grown-up Shoreditch.”

James Proctor, head of London offices at consultancy Hartnell Taylor Cook, has also noticed the shift. “There’s a lot of [flex] stock available in Shoreditch. It has become less popular of late, mainly because tech firms that drove the area’s rise are not getting the funding, so they’re not expanding.”

Our Bloomsbury site is a slightly more affordable option than the West End
Natasha Guerra, Runway East

Established landlords that now offer flex space also still see plenty of opportunity in the capital. British Land has pivoted to embrace the changing winds and now operates flexible office brands Storey and Work Ready.

Becky Gardiner, head of Storey at British Land, says occupancy is at 97% across its 12 locations in London. Storey’s average let agreement is 22 months, but the average stay by a firm is three and a half years. “Demand is really high and it feels like there’s still scope for more space [in London],” she says.

Runway East, which leases spaces from landlords and turns them into flexible offices, has eight sites in London and five others across England. It has seen demand at its Bloomsbury site in central London “skyrocket”, according to its chief executive Natasha Guerra. “It’s a slightly more affordable option than the West End,” she says. “But you can be in Soho in 10 minutes and then on the Elizabeth line.”

Amid Runway East’s expansion, Guerra also says it plans to open a “few new sites” in the West End.

Outside the capital, the flexible office market is growing at a slower rate, according to Leahy. “Operators and landlords have to be slightly more considered,” he says.

Lower desk rates in the regions are the reason for this caution, Leahy says. The latest data from Workthere shows the average desk cost in London in the first half of this year was £841 per month, compared with £463 per month in the rest of the UK.

Manchester and Birmingham are the two biggest markets outside London, but Petryshen says it is “early days” for managed offerings in these cities. “We haven’t seen a ton of additional supply on the managed side yet, but operators are starting conversations with landlords in those cities so I expect within the next six to 12 months, we’ll see more of that inventory come on board.”

Elsewhere, providers such as Patch are providing what Ellis-Moore refers to as a “neighbourhood offering” in towns and smaller cities. The company has opened five locations – Bournemouth, Chelmsford, High Wycombe, Twickenham and York – and is due to open a site in Gloucester in November.

But with the growing number of operators, is market consolidation inevitable?

Earlier this year, CBRE made a significant move into the market with the acquisition of New York-headquartered Industrious to compete with the likes of WeWork, Regus, Blackstone and Brockton Capital’s Fora.

Unifying factors

“Consolidation is definitely going to come,” says Ellis-Moore. “A lot of brands are growing to sell and I get a lot of calls from investors looking at this sector, which has really increased this summer. But it’s the pricing and what anyone is willing to pay for these brands.”

Another big deal this year was London investment firm Crosstree acquiring serviced office business Argyll for a reported £330m.

Demand is really high and it feels like there’s still scope for more space
Becky Gardiner, Storey

Petryshen says: “There are companies trying to wrap some of these operators up together to compete with the big players. Those conversations are happening; it’s just a question of when. But it could be two to five years before we start to see that.”

When it comes to Runway East, it sees itself more as a potential acquisitor than a takeover target. “We don’t see ourselves being swallowed up,” says Guerra. And while the group is not actively looking to buy rivals either, she says, “if something came along and was a good opportunity, we would definitely look at it”.

As the flexible office sector matures, she believes the boundaries between traditional office space and flex space will become less clear. “Is there some day we just refer to the whole thing as office space? It’s the way it’s going,” she says.

Case study: 2-work

Leeds-based 2-work is among a crop of fast-growing smaller regional operators in the flexible office space. After launching in 2021, the firm now has three locations in its home city and was due to open its fourth as Property Week went to press.

Another location in Leeds is due to open in December, while the company will unveil its first site outside West Yorkshire – in Accrington, Lancashire – in 2026. More openings are expected next year.

2-work offers a range of options, including office spaces from £149 plus VAT per desk per month to a single-day pass, or room hire for a few days.

“Leeds has been an incredible success story for us,” says co-founding director Gal Leslie. But she adds: “Our growth strategy is clear: we seek the right opportunities, not just more opportunities.”