Number of coworking spaces in Belgium 2016-2019

How many coworking spaces are there in Belgium? According to calculations, there were close to 200 coworking centers in the country in 2019. Together, these made up less than one percent of the total office market in the country. In Brussels, however, the share of flexible workspaces made up more than 20 percent of all office take-up, making the Belgian capital one of Europe’s most common cities for coworking.

Brussels leads the charge for office space in Belgium…

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the city with the highest amount of office space in Belgium was Brussels. There were large differences, however, between Brussels and other Belgian cities. It was forecast that Antwerp, for example, would have roughly two million square meters of office space in 2018, whereas Brussels would have around 12.5 million. Due to the capital’s central location and the presence of European institutions, prime office rents in Brussels were also significantly higher than those found in other Belgian cities.

… but not when it comes to constructing new office space.

One reason why coworking in Brussels might be popular, could be due to construction issues in the Belgian capital. In 2018, there were just 15 building permits for newly constructed commercial real estate in the Brussels-Capital Region (which includes the city of Brussels plus its surrounding villages). This same value reached over 4,000 in the northern, Belgian Dutch-speaking region of Flanders. The vacancy rate of offices in Brussels also reached its lowest value in 2018.