The Corona crisis once stopped the coworking hype, but the market is growing again. The Frankfurt-based company SleevesUp is investing outside of the big cities – and thanks to a merger, is becoming the largest coworking network in Germany.
By Felix Monsees and Daniel Bauer
What do you think of when you hear the word “coworking space”? Maybe MacBook-wielding digital nomads doing yoga with their fair trade coffee during their lunch break or besieging a ping pong table? Or do you think of lounge furniture in front of exposed brick walls?
But you probably have an urban environment in mind, you think of metropolises – more like Frankfurt than Dreieich, Lich or Oberursel. But it is precisely here, in the “B-locations close to home”, that the Frankfurt company SleevesUp offers workspaces.
Trend from France and Great Britain
The advantage: Customers commute shorter from their home to their place of work, saving money and time, says company founder Sebastian Schmidt, listing the advantages.
Coworking spaces outside of the big cities are a trend that has already been observed in the United Kingdom and France, says Professor Christoph Schalast of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. He predicts that this trend will increasingly spill over into Germany and Hesse.
According to data from the Federal Association of Coworking Spaces, the number of offers in rural regions is also increasing. According to the data, the nationwide number of cities and municipalities with such shared offices has increased by more than 70 percent since 2020, to 572 at the end of February this year.
According to the data, Hesse was in fifth place among federal states in 2020 with 164 coworking spaces. More recent figures for individual federal states are not yet available.
Escape from high rents
The reason for the growth is obviously not the new desire for rural life, but the escape from the high rents in the metropolises, which many people can no longer afford.
This also applies to workspaces: In Frankfurt, the average rent for office space has risen to 25 Euro per square meter increased, which is more than four euros more than in 2021.
“Feeling isolated in the home office”
Fueled by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, new, mobile working styles are emerging that are shaping working life. The Bertelsmann Foundation wrote in a study published in 2020: “New workplaces in rural areas are benefiting from this development.” Thanks to digitalization, employees no longer have to commute to headquarters every day.
The new customers are often no longer digital nomads, creative workers or startup founders. “Since Corona, there have been many individual users who are employed by a large company and feel too isolated in their home office,” says Schmidt.
SleevesUp offers work spaces in 13 Hessian cities, not only in Frankfurt, but also in Oberursel, Rüsselsheim and Bad Homburg. Schmidt’s stated goal is to continue to grow in the area.
Sleeves-Up-Gründer Sebastian Schmidt
At the end of July, the company announced that it would be joining forces with its competitor Work Inn in order to become the market leader in Germany. The network of locations is expected to grow to 100 coworking spaces by 2028.
While SleevesUp has so far spread mainly in the Rhine-Main and Neckar region, Work Inn’s focus is on the Ruhr area.
“Where to put the office after Corona?”
The coworking hype began in Germany in the early 2010s. Start-ups in particular suddenly had the opportunity to rent professional offices and realize their company plans.
However, the Corona pandemic put an abrupt end to social work. “Nobody really knew where to put the office“, Schmidt said.
For the last two years, the market has been experiencing decent growth again. New SleevesUp locations have been added in recent months, reports Schmidt. “And unlike during Corona, these can reach their target capacity much more quickly.”
Experts like Frankfurt professor Schalast are now expecting a coworking renaissance. Provided there is no new pandemic that dampens the positive mood in the industry. But we are now much better prepared for that, says Schmidt.
