From the Thin Flex Line to Today: What the Flexible Office Sector Got Right — and What It’s Still Working Out

In 2021, I wrote a piece called The Thin Flex Line, a personal reflection on an industry I’ve spent over 20 years working in. At the time, the flexible office space sector was growing rapidly, fuelled by post-pandemic demand shifts and a fresh wave of optimism. But something didn’t feel quite right.

Operators were scaling. Investors were circling. Providers were rebranding. And yet… the fundamentals still felt fuzzy. What was flex, really?

Was it real estate? Was it hospitality? Was it tech? Or just a well-designed middle ground?

Looking back now, through the lens of two heavyweight 2025 market reports (Colliers’ Flexpansion and Spaces to Places’ From Hype to Operational Real Estate), many of those questions are finally being answered. And a few of my original concerns still hold true.

So here’s a quick look at what flex got right, what it got wrong, and where we’ve landed in this strange, hybrid world of coworking, serviced offices, and everything in between.

 

Then: “Flex doesn’t quite know what it is yet.”

Now: It’s finally becoming Operational Real Estate.

Back in 2021, I argued that flex space hadn’t yet picked a lane. It wasn’t being valued like traditional property, but it also hadn’t proven itself as a service-led business model. As a result, institutional capital remained cautious; understandably so.

Fast forward to today, and that identity crisis is easing.

The Spaces to Places 2025 report makes it clear: flex is finally being recognised as Operational Real Estate. A model where performance is measured by revenue, churn, and customer experience rather than just yield or ERV. Management agreements now account for 41% of all new deals, up from just 9% pre-COVID. It’s a seismic shift in how the sector is funded, structured, and assessed.

Then: “Design and community were prioritised over operations.”

Now: Profitability and service quality are front and centre.

In 2021, the race was on to create the most beautifully curated workspaces. Coworking brands talked about vibe and belonging. Fit-out photos flooded social feeds. But when you scratched beneath the surface, very few providers could show you consistent performance metrics, or even a reliable P&L.

Today, that’s changing.

Operators are investing in the less glamorous (but more essential) stuff: tech infrastructure, RevPAU metrics, cost-per-desk benchmarks, and scalable service delivery. As Spaces to Places puts it: “Flex isn’t a tech play. It’s a cash flow business.” And the winners in this next phase will be those who operate smart, not just those who scale fast.

Then: “Flex was a category in search of proof.”

Now: The numbers are finally starting to speak.

In The Thin Flex Line, I pointed out that for all its promise, the sector still hadn’t proven its long-term commercial viability to the people who mattered most: investors, landlords, and occupiers. There were a lot of good stories, but not enough good data.

That gap is narrowing.

Both the Colliers and Spaces to Places reports show a sector maturing fast:

• Managed space supply in Central London is up 895% since 2019.
• Average licence terms are stretching beyond 3 years.
• NOI-based valuation models are increasingly common.
• Well-run serviced office portfolios are outperforming traditional lease-based returns by up to 30% over 10 years.

That’s no longer just a narrative. That’s a balance sheet you can get behind.

So where does this leave us?

Some parts of The Thin Flex Line still hold water. Flex is a hybrid and it still resists clean categorisation. It borrows from hospitality, relies on real estate fundamentals, and increasingly depends on technology to scale. That complexity isn’t going away.

But the days of flex being an ‘emerging’ category are behind us. Today, flexible office space is a strategic asset class in its own right. One that delivers value for landlords, adaptability for occupiers, and serious returns for those who understand the business behind the buzzwords.

In short: we’ve come a long way from vibes and velvet sofas.

Final thought

It’s always awkward re-reading something you wrote years ago but in this case, it’s also been reassuring. The sector has matured, the thinking has caught up, and the questions we asked then are finally being answered.