Top 3 Revenue Sources
Most coworking spaces generate their highest income from private offices, followed by desk memberships. The third-largest revenue source is meeting-space rental. However, the ranking changes significantly with location size. Furthermore, the results indicate that, apart from social factors such as the community vibe, finding the right balance is also key when it comes to the services provided.
Top-3 Revenue Streams for Coworking Space Companies - #1 = largest revenue stream, ..., #3 = third-largest stream
What Do Coworking Spaces Earn per m² or ft²?
Coworking spaces earn about US $4.20 per ft² in the U.S. and €32 per m² in the Eurozone. But these are only averages — regional differences are large!! In cities like Paris or New York, operators could pay much more per square unit for the lease alone.
Revenue per square unit generally grows with location size. Larger coworking spaces benefit from private offices, which generate the highest revenue there. They also tend to sit more often in major urban areas where coworking demand is greatest and occupancy rates are stronger.
Smaller spaces in smaller communities earn less per square meter or square foot, as they not only offer fewer private offices but also face lower demand for them.
Business model also matters: In non-profit spaces, most revenue comes from desk-based memberships, which yield less per person than private offices. Such spaces—whether for-profit or non-profit—can still succeed with hot-desk models by renting desks to multiple users and partially offsetting lower per-member revenue. Nonetheless, coworking spaces without any private offices are less often profitable.
One in Five Coworking Spaces Would Surrender Their Concept to a Single Tenant
Coworking thrives on the idea of like-minded individuals sharing space voluntarily to work and network. But what happens when a coworking space would allocate more capacity to a single company with many employees to secure its income?
On average, coworking spaces would lease up to 43 percent of their capacity to a single tenant, though the range is wide: About one-third would never lease more than 20 percent to one tenant; conversely, nearly one-fifth of operators would hand over an entire building to a single company, abandoning the coworking concept altogether.
What’s the maximum capacity coworking spaces would allocate to one tenant? (Early 2025)
Space allocation to a single tenant depends heavily on overall size. Large spaces generally pursue greater tenant diversity because they have the floor area to support it, while smaller operators more often rent larger shares—or even their entire space—to a single tenant. This willingness also rises sharply during unprofitable periods or when occupancy is low.
Interestingly, poor regional economic conditions have little effect on how much capacity coworking spaces allocate to one tenant. In fact, new tenants rarely displace existing ones simply by taking more space.
Find more compelling figures and trends on profitability, demand, offerings, occupancy, and other financial metrics in this article.
For deeper insights, see our Ultimate Coworking Space Data Report. Over 300 slides compare key features across different coworking-space groups; general results are also available in a free version.
►► Next page: More on the statistical background, citation note and thanks to our partners
📊 All articles of the 2024/2025 Coworking Trends Survey:
- What Coworking Spaces Look Like Today – The Latest Figures
- More Profitable Coworking Spaces Now Than Pre-Covid
- Coworking Spaces in Germany Show Strong Signs of Recovery
- Japan’s Coworking Spaces Between Growth and Uncertainty
If you’d like to have additional reports focused on your country or region, become a partner in the next survey and contact us. You can also increase the likelihood of receiving more detailed results from your region by becoming an Official Partner.
Here you can explore all articles and reports from the Coworking Trends Survey and the Global Coworking Survey.
