A commercial property company expects to increase the available co-working space in the next five years to cope with increasing demand.
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Generator, a subsidiary of Precinct Properties, said demand for co-working spaces had been extraordinary since the pandemic, as more firms wanted the flexibility to scale up or down when they needed to.
It said occupancy rates fell from 97 to 65 percent last year but were now back to more than 85 percent, with the company forecasting a complete recovery later in the year.
"The last 12 months has been a game changer for the industry," Generator general manager John Moffett said.
"We're seeing really large corporate companies looking to use products like Generator as an adjunct space to their traditional office."
Many of Generator tenants were also small to medium sized businesses who wanted the flexibility to split their work hours between home and the office, Moffett said.
Generator operated 15,000 square meters of co-working space across four facilities in central Auckland.
The company is poised to expand into the Wellington office market later in the year, as it opens the first of two new facilities planned for the city to meet growing demand.
Moffett said he thought the idea of the big office was here to stay, despite the pandemic increasing working from home.
It was becoming more common for big commercial firms, which already had large floor-plate leases, to rent co-working spaces for staff workshops and events, he said.