The flexible-workspace giant signed 728 new locations in H1 2026 and saw managed and franchise revenue jump 84%. Founder Mark Dixon says the daily commute will be a relic by 2040.
When the world’s largest flexible-workspace provider reports a record half-year, it’s worth paying attention. When the same company suggests the daily commute could be over within 15 years, it’s worth a proper conversation.
IWG, the company behind Regus, Spaces, HQ and Signature, signed 728 new locations in the first half of 2026, up from 496 in the same period a year earlier, according to Property Week. It opened 425 of them, compared with 338 in H1 2025. It’s the kind of growth that makes you wonder whether “flexible” is still the right word for what’s clearly becoming the default.
Managed and franchised sites do the heavy lifting
The standout number sits in IWG’s managed and franchised business, where recurring fee income jumped 84% in the first half. Those locations now account for 22% of total revenue, up from 18% a year earlier.
That shift matters. Rather than signing long traditional leases and taking all the risk itself, IWG increasingly partners with landlords who own the buildings, running the workspace under its own brands in exchange for a management fee. It’s a lighter, more scalable model and one that landlords, many of them sitting on half-empty offices, are increasingly keen on.
The results build on a record 2025, when IWG reported $4.45 billion in system-wide revenue. The company maintained its 2026 adjusted core profit forecast of $585 million to $625 million, and said it expects lower overhead costs in the second half following recent growth initiatives and operational changes.
AI is making office demand impossible to predict
Behind the numbers is a quieter story about why flexible space is winning right now. According to IWG’s research, 60% of surveyed CEOs and CFOs say AI has made it impossible to know how much office space their companies will need two years from now.
That’s a striking admission from the people who sign the leases. If you don’t know whether your headcount will be 200 or 2,000 in 24 months or what those people will actually do, now that software can do so much of it, a ten-year lease starts to look less like an asset and more like a gamble.
Flexible workspace lets companies adjust their footprint without that commitment. Need more desks next quarter? Add them. Need fewer? Shrink. For a business trying to navigate an AI reshuffle, that agility is the whole point.
“Mad stuff”: why Dixon thinks the commute is on borrowed time
IWG’s founder and executive chair Mark Dixon is happy to push the argument further. A lot further.
Speaking to Fortune, Dixon predicted that commuting could be extinct within the next 15 years. By 2040, he says, Gen Alpha will be so used to working from wherever’s convenient that the idea of travelling into an office will feel as dated as riding a horse to work or writing by candlelight before electricity.
“In the future, you’re going to explain to your kids that you used to commute,” Dixon said. They’ll think it’s “mad stuff” that bosses once asked workers to “travel 100 miles to sit down and use a computer.”
“They’ll say, why did you do that? Because they won’t understand that people traveled long distances to use a piece of equipment somewhere else,” he added. “It’s going to change a lot the workplace of the future is everywhere. And it’ll be very productive.”
Dixon’s bet is that return-to-office mandates are “just a blip” a last gasp of the old model rather than a lasting settlement. IWG’s own research found that 80% of Gen Alpha expect flexible work to be the norm by 2040.
What it means for the office market
You don’t have to share Dixon’s 2040 timeline to see the direction of travel. The H1 numbers tell the story companies are actually voting with: when the future is uncertain, flexibility wins.
That’s true for the occupiers trying to right-size their portfolios, and it’s increasingly true for the landlords looking for something anything to fill vacant floors. The managed-office model, where a flex operator runs the space on a landlord’s behalf, is the fastest-growing corner of the market for a reason. It turns empty buildings into revenue and gives tenants a professional base without a decade-long commitment.
For the growing ranks of businesses that don’t need a headquarters at all just a credible address, a place to meet clients, and a network of drop-in desks when the team travels the logic is even sharper. A virtual office plus on-demand workspace gets you most of the benefits of a traditional office at a fraction of the cost, and none of the rigidity.
IWG’s record half-year is, in the end, less a story about one company and more a story about a market quietly reorganising itself around uncertainty. Whether the commute dies by 2040 or just keeps shrinking, the companies that stay flexible now will be the ones best placed to adapt when it does.
