Calgary’s co-working office space market is a leader amongst major Canadian cities in growth, according to a new report by CBRE.

Since 2017, co-working office space in the city grew by 100%, with 460,000 sq. ft. added in absolute terms.

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As of the second quarter of 2019, there is 918,000 sq. ft. of co-working space in the region, accounting for 1.3% of total office space inventory. The average location size is relatively small at 18,000 sq. ft.

Downtown Calgary accounted for a majority of the supply, with 534,000 sq. ft. spanning 23 of the region’s 51 total locations.

Regus is the largest co-working operator, with a regional share of 22% of the supply, totalling 203,000 sq. ft. of space across 12 locations. This is followed by WeWork, accounting for 175,000 sq. ft. across two locations opening this year and next year.

There has been a vicious circle in the pace of growth of co-working spaces, with low office vacancies — reaching around 2% in downtown — fuelling the need for shared work spaces.

The market with the highest growth was Vancouver, with an increase of 112% — 913,000 sq. ft. in absolute terms.

This is followed by Ottawa (82%), Toronto (73%), and Montreal (60%).

In absolute terms, Toronto leads growth with 1.3 million sq. ft. of space added across 54 new locations over the last two years.