A study has been carried out which compares the cost of renting co-working space to that of maintaining a workstation in a regular office. And it’s good news for sociable freelancers thinking of working alongside fellow their flexiworker!

The results show that renting a desk in a co-working space costs half as much in most cities. It’s statistics like these that illustrate the financial benefits of hiring remote workers and outsourcing vital business functions.

The research by Deskwanted.com, looks at how things fare in the UK, Europe and the US – and the results are rather similar for each.

Renting a co-working desk in the UK costs, on average, £223 compared to £404 for a regular office. In the US, a coworker pays on average $365 a month for a desk with 24-hour office access. For a workstation in a typical office, the cost rises to $733. The situation is very similar in Europe where the costs are €259 and €588 respectively.

The number crunching for the study was done by real estate consultancy firm DTZ across 116 regions in 50 countries.

One issue that need to be taken into account is the lack of standardisation across co-working hubs. So, access times will vary (is it 8, 10, or 24 hours a day?), the number of working days per month (if you’re renting by the month) and the actual facilities which are laid on – such as kitchen facilities, size of desk, lockable drawers etc.

As the industry matures, price-points should become more predictable, but the bad news is that they will also become more expensive as demand grows – much closer to that of regular office costs. Take the birth-place of co-working, San Francisco, for example. There the costs have been rising and are now much closer to that of the traditional office costs.

The fact that there remains strong demand in San Francisco illustrates that the culture of co-working is highly valued regardless of cost. Perhaps this is due to the sense of camaraderie that exists within the freelance community, and the networking opportunities that co-working presents.

Photo by Juan Tello – CC