Entrepreneurs looking for office space today have considerably more choice than simply working from home or renting a traditional office. Coworking spaces, business centres, serviced offices and shared office buildings all offer some form of shared workspace. And while the labels may differ, the concepts themselves are beginning to look increasingly alike. That is particularly interesting because shared office buildings are hardly a new phenomenon. Long before coworking became an international property category, Dutch entrepreneurs were already sharing buildings, meeting rooms and other facilities.
The Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (KVK) recently highlighted the concept again. According to KVK, an office in a shared business building can be particularly attractive because of lower costs, shared facilities, flexibility and opportunities to connect with other entrepreneurs. KVK says that a workspace can be available from around €150 per month, although costs naturally increase as a business requires more space or additional facilities.
For the office market, the interesting question is therefore not whether shared offices are new. It is how the traditional shared business building is evolving as entrepreneurs develop higher expectations around flexibility, services and workplace experience.
Shared business buildings already had many elements of coworking
Coworking is often associated with open-plan workspaces, coffee, community managers, events and flexible memberships. But several of its fundamental characteristics have existed in Dutch shared business buildings for much longer.
Entrepreneurs might share kitchens, toilets, meeting rooms and cleaning services, for example. Some locations provide additional amenities such as reception services, shared cars or communal activities. As a result, a small business does not have to organise and finance all the facilities associated with a standalone office itself.
According to KVK, the network within a building can also be an important benefit. Entrepreneurs meet one another on a daily basis, can refer work to fellow tenants and find expertise among other businesses under the same roof. KVK cites, among others, the example of a shared business building in Deventer that deliberately brings creative entrepreneurs together to encourage collaboration.
That will sound remarkably familiar to anyone following the coworking market. The difference is increasingly less about what a location offers and more about how those services are organised and positioned. A traditional shared business building may primarily consist of individual office units with a handful of communal facilities. A coworking location will typically place greater emphasis on flexible workspaces, hospitality and community. A business centre, meanwhile, may provide more private offices alongside a wider range of business services. In practice, those distinctions are becoming increasingly blurred.
Entrepreneurs are buying more than square metres
This development reflects a broader shift in the office market. For many small businesses, renting office space is no longer simply a property decision. In effect, they are buying access to a package of services. Internet, coffee, cleaning, meeting rooms, reception services, phone booths and even networking events can all form part of the same proposition. This shifts the comparison away from simply looking at the basic rent per square metre towards considering both the total cost and the practical value of a workspace.
KVK, for example, points to the cost advantages of shared facilities. An entrepreneur can rent a single desk or small office while gaining access to amenities that, in a standalone office, would need to be paid for or arranged separately. But price is not the only consideration. Flexibility can be just as important. A start-up often has little certainty about how much space it will require two years from now. A business with two employees could grow to five, while a freelancer may decide to spend more time working from home again.
Within a shared office environment, moving into a larger or smaller space within the same building can sometimes be considerably easier. KVK gives the example of a communications agency at Hooghiemstra in Utrecht that was able to expand within the building when a larger unit became available. That principle is remarkably similar to what modern flexible office operators offer: workspace as a scalable service rather than a static property commitment.
Community has value but not for everyone
The social element is perhaps the clearest point at which traditional shared business buildings and coworking intersect. Working from home can be inexpensive and efficient, but it lacks the spontaneous interaction of a physical workplace. A shared office can create that interaction without an entrepreneur needing to employ a team of their own. That can bring commercial benefits. A graphic designer might work next door to a marketing agency, while a software developer could meet a potential client over lunch. But community does not automatically become valuable simply because several entrepreneurs happen to share the same address.
The tenant mix, communal areas and programme of activities all play a significant role in determining whether meaningful interaction actually takes place. Some entrepreneurs deliberately seek a lively environment; others simply want a quiet room with reliable Wi-Fi. That also creates a challenge for operators. No single location can create the perfect community for every type of business.
Shared office space also comes with disadvantages. KVK points to issues including reduced privacy, occupied meeting rooms and limited control over the appearance of a building or the other businesses using it. Entrepreneurs who regularly hold confidential conversations or require a highly specific corporate environment may therefore still be better suited to a standalone office.
The quality of shared office space is therefore determined not simply by the number of amenities on offer, but by how well the building, its services and its target audience fit together.
An office address is not automatically a registered business address
There is another important practical distinction for entrepreneurs that can sometimes be overlooked in commercial workspace offers: renting a workspace does not automatically mean that a company can register that address with KVK.
KVK states that registration at the address of a shared business building is possible when an entrepreneur has permanent access to a workspace or room where a substantial part of the company’s activities takes place. This can also be a shared flexible workspace, but the entrepreneur must have independent access during opening hours and this must be reflected in the rental agreement.
Someone who only occasionally books a desk or meeting room cannot automatically use that location as their visiting address, according to KVK. In certain circumstances, however, it may be possible to use it as a postal address. KVK also specifically refers to additional requirements concerning service and rental agreements at shared business premises when businesses change their registered address.
That distinction becomes increasingly important as the market offers more variations, ranging from a coworking day pass to a private office, postal address or fully serviced office.
For operators, there is an opportunity to be clearer about exactly what a customer is purchasing. The question is not only: How much does my workspace cost? It is also: What access do I receive, which services are included and what can I actually use the address for?
Shared office space fits a hybrid market
The appeal of shared offices also needs to be viewed in the context of how people now work in the Netherlands.
Statistics Netherlands (CBS) recorded approximately 5.15 million people in employment who worked from home either usually or occasionally in 2025, out of a total employed workforce of around 9.83 million. Separate CBS research also shows that while remote working has not increased significantly since 2022, it remains structurally high: in 2025, 80% of the businesses surveyed offered employees the option to work remotely.
That does not mean the office is disappearing. Instead, it means users can afford to be more selective about the type of office space they need and when they use it. For small businesses and freelancers, a shared office can therefore provide an attractive middle ground: more professionalism and facilities than the kitchen table, without immediately taking on all the costs and commitments associated with a standalone office. And that is precisely where shared business buildings, business centres and coworking spaces meet.
From square metres to a flexible ecosystem
The term coworking may be relatively young, but the underlying idea of sharing office space is not. What is changing are users’ expectations. A modern shared business building no longer competes solely with the office building down the road. It competes with coworking, serviced offices, working from home and, in some cases, the option of having no permanent office at all. As a result, the combination of price, flexibility, community, image and services is becoming increasingly important.
For operators and property owners, this creates an interesting opportunity. The traditional model of simply letting individual office units can be expanded with services and community-building. At the same time, coworking operators can learn from shared business buildings where entrepreneurs may remain for years and expand within the same property as their businesses grow.
Perhaps the most significant development, therefore, is not that coworking is replacing the traditional shared business building. The two are converging.
The winner? The office that grows with the entrepreneur
For entrepreneurs, choosing shared office space is ultimately less about labels than it is about needs. A shared business building, coworking space or business centre can be attractive when a standalone office is too large or expensive, but working from home no longer provides everything a business requires.
For the office market, there is a broader lesson. The question is shifting from how many square metres do you want to rent? To what kind of working environment and services does your business actually need?
The providers best able to answer that question flexibly are likely to be well positioned in a market where the distinction between office space and service is becoming increasingly difficult to draw.
