London now offers more flexible office choice than almost any city in the world. That should make life easier for growing teams. In reality, it often creates confusion and costly mistakes that you only feel six months after moving in.
How crowded is London’s flexible office market?
Over 60 different flexible office providers now run 686 locations across London. Yet most founders and office managers can only name one or two big brands. The result is a highly fragmented market that looks vibrant on the surface but is very hard to compare in a hurry.
According to The Instant Group’s 2024 research, the average transacted desk rate in London is about £514 per month. At the top end, some premium spaces reach £1,170 per desk per month. That is more than a 2x swing for what can look like a similar office on a viewing.
At the same time, average occupancy sits around 83% and rises to 88% in areas like Southwark and the City.
These numbers matter. A busy building with high occupancy often signals strong service and a good location. A cheaper space with more empty desks might reflect weaker demand or issues you will only discover later such as poor management, thin staffing or limited amenities.
What does this mean for your next office move?
In a market this crowded, the risk is not simply overpaying. It is choosing the wrong partner for how your team actually works.
Key issues include:
- Paying premium rates for space your team will not fully use
- Moving into a location the right side of your budget but the wrong side of your client base
- Picking a provider whose service dips as the building fills up
- Locking into a setup that hurts culture or hybrid working patterns
- Losing months of momentum while you fix an avoidable office mistake
To cut through this complexity, you need to move beyond headline price per desk and start comparing how healthy each provider is behind the scenes.
How should you really compare flexible office providers in London?
Price per desk is only the starting point. To avoid costly moves, you need to understand how well each operator actually runs its buildings. As noted earlier, high occupancy usually signals strong service and reliable operations.
Conversely, very low occupancy at a bargain rate can point to weaker management, constant churn or a poor fit with local demand.
You should also check sector fit rather than just a stylish fit-out. According to Mordor Intelligence in 2025, information technology firms take the largest share of UK flexible space while banking and financial services are the fastest growing users.
A high growth tech company will care most about very fast and stable internet, secure access and plenty of focus rooms. A financial services firm, on the other hand, will add strict data security standards and private meeting space to that list.
Providers focused on large enterprises often offer advanced access controls, standardised layouts across sites and detailed reporting for corporate real estate teams, while startup focused spaces lean into founder communities, mentoring and informal networking.
The best comparison is between providers who already serve businesses like yours well.
Financial resilience is the final filter. Flexible operators have held up better than traditional landlords through recent rate hikes because they can adjust licence pricing quickly. At the same time, operating costs rose about 8% in 2024 which puts pressure on weaker brands.
Ask how the provider handled the slower end to 2023, whether service levels changed as buildings filled up and how they plan to upgrade or expand locations over the next few years.
These answers will tell you who can keep quality steady as markets shift and who may struggle once growth returns.
How do you build a clear framework for comparing providers?
To turn a long list of buildings into a shortlist, treat each provider as a bundle of four things rather than just a price. You are judging where the building sits, how it is wired, how future proof it is, and how easily it can grow with you.
Use a simple lens like this when you visit or review proposals:
- Location performance: Whether demand in that area is rising and who else is taking space nearby
- Technology backbone: Whether internet, access control and meeting room tools match your day to day work
- Sustainability: Whether the building can meet tightening energy and carbon rules over the next few years
- Scalability and landlord strength: Whether the operator can genuinely add or reconfigure space for you
Landlord relationships matter because supply is shifting. Most owners expect at least a quarter of their buildings to move into flexible formats by 2030, which will favour operators trusted to run multiple sites for the same landlord and to open new floors or nearby hubs quickly.
Look closely for warning signs. If a provider is in a race to the bottom on price, or tied into long leases on tired stock, rising costs and business rates can squeeze margins and eventually service.
Older towers are already caught in price wars as tenants move into greener space. That is why operators in strong locations who offer managed, service rich offices tend to keep pricing power and reinvest in quality.
How ADAPT helps you make sense of London’s flex office maze
It is extremely easy to overpay or pick the wrong provider when you’re staring at headline desk rates and glossy photos.
ADAPT exists to remove that guesswork for growing teams, using deep market knowledge and a clear comparison framework so you don’t learn about problems six months after move-in. Instead of sending you random options, ADAPT maps your budget, team size, working style and client base against live data on occupancy, building performance and sector fit.
We look at how busy a building really is, who it already works well for, the strength of the tech and internet, and whether the operator can genuinely scale with you.
Because we’re not tied to any one brand, we can show you both well-known spaces and hidden, off-market options across London. You get a curated shortlist that filters out tired stock, weak management and poor locations, so your time on viewings is spent choosing between good options, not spotting red flags.
After 20+ years around the market, we’ve helped everyone from first-time founders to 100-person teams avoid costly moves and find offices that boost culture and performance instead of holding them back.
Most teams see a tiny slice of what’s really out there, then make a huge decision on shaky information. Our job is to put the whole market on the table in a simple, honest way so you can choose with confidence.
Chris Meredith, ADAPT CEO & Founder
What can you do to get ahead of your next London office move?
If your team is growing, shifting to hybrid, or stuck in a space that no longer fits, now is the time to rethink your options. In a crowded flex market, the worst move is a rushed one based only on price per desk.
ADAPT can help you quickly narrow London’s hundreds of spaces down to a small, high-quality shortlist that matches how your team actually works, and our support is completely free for occupiers.
You’ll see smarter, more flexible options and avoid the hidden traps that cost money and momentum later. See how ADAPT connects fast-growing businesses with spaces built for what’s next.
