We are a little late with this one, but the news is too good to pass over in silence. In May, Næringseiendom reported that IWG, the world's largest provider of flexible office solutions, is launching an entirely new concept in Norway. It is called Openoffice, and it is only the latest piece of an expansion that has moved surprisingly fast over the past year.
What is Openoffice?
Openoffice is a new brand from IWG, which already operates Regus and Spaces in Norway. The concept is built around smaller spaces, from 300 to around 600 m², placed in the four largest cities. The centres are unstaffed and located close to centres IWG already runs, which lets the company extend its network without building up new staffing at every site.
The first centre is a 300 m² space at Storgata 20 in central Oslo. The building is owned by Morten Lager and Rune Sandbæk, two of the founders behind Anton Sport, and is managed by Hel Forvaltning, which describes the property as recently fully refurbished with short distances to public transport, retail and dining.
IWG is open about its ambitions. The company says Openoffice will offer smaller spaces of 300 to around 600 m² in the four largest cities, according to partnership manager Moeez Asif speaking to Næringseiendom. The plan is five Openoffice locations during 2026, spread across Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen and Stavanger.
An expansion that has moved fast
Openoffice does not arrive alone. Over the past year IWG has signed one partnership after another with Norwegian landlords.
At Høvik they opened a 734 m² Regus centre at Fjordveien 1, and in Oslo, IWG took over the former 657 premises at Fredensborgveien 22 under the Spaces brand, alongside landlord Heimstaden. The latter is a story worth noting. For more than a decade, 657 was one of Oslo's best-known gathering points for creative and startup communities, before the operation was sold on, went bankrupt, and finally ended up with a global operator. It says something about how demanding it is to run coworking on your own, and why many landlords now prefer to bring in an established operator instead.
The numbers speak clearly. IWG went from 24 centres in Norway in January 2025 to 27 centres by June of the same year, and the figure has only continued to grow. The company says it wants to cover the whole country by 2030, aiming to open around ten new centres a year, including in smaller towns such as Tønsberg, Lillestrøm and Tromsø. IWG reports an average occupancy of 78 percent across its Norwegian centres.
The model that makes this possible is worth understanding. IWG rarely owns the buildings itself. Instead it enters management agreements with landlords, operates the premises, and brings along its demand and global network. The landlord keeps the property and avoids most of the risk. That is a good part of why IWG can grow as fast as it does.
Spacefinders assessment
What makes this interesting is that IWG is growing into a market that is actually struggling. UNION's coworking survey for the winter of 2025 showed that occupancy in Oslo centres fell to 69 percent, while operators themselves say occupancy needs to exceed 82 percent for operations to be profitable. Only around 40 percent of the centres were at a level that implies profitable operation.
That is exactly what makes IWG's strategy worth a nod. When you do not carry the property risk yourself, you can grow against the cycle, and you can pick up premises others cannot make work. The 657 story is a good example. Where a smaller operator went bankrupt, a global player could step in and take over.
For you as a tenant looking for office space, this is mostly good news. More flexible alternatives are appearing, often with short rental periods from month to month, furnished premises and services included.
At the same time, it pays to keep a level head. A serviced office is not the same as an ordinary lease, and the price per workstation can look low right up until you do the maths on what shared costs, lock-in periods and mark-ups actually add up to over time. The flexibility you pay for is real, but it has a price. For many smaller companies it is exactly the right solution. For others, a dedicated space with a conventional lease is cheaper once the full calculation is done.
That is precisely the assessment we help tenants make. If you want to compare a flexible office against a space of your own, you are welcome to get in touch. Our advisory service is always free for you as a tenant.
Sources: Næringseiendom (NE.no), Estate Nyheter, Finansavisen, Shifter, UNION (Coworking Survey, winter 2025), IWG, Eiendomshuset Malling & Co, and Spacefinder's own observations from the market.
