A coworking space is usually marketed around familiar needs: flexibility, collaboration, short commitments and a professional alternative to working from home. In Lucerne, Switzerland, another demand driver is becoming visible international relocation.
A growing community of Norwegian entrepreneurs and investors has established itself in Switzerland in recent years, with tax policy among the factors influencing those moves. That migration is now creating something the flexible workspace industry should pay attention to: demand for offices that function not just as places to work, but as landing platforms for internationally mobile business owners.
Nordic Coworking Luzern is an example. The workspace caters to a community that needs private offices and meeting rooms, but also company domiciliation, local knowledge and access to other entrepreneurs navigating a similar transition.
For flexible workspace operators, that combination points towards a market opportunity that extends well beyond conventional coworking.
From personal relocation to business infrastructure
The Norwegian-Swiss story is significant because the relocation trend increasingly involves businesses as well as individuals.
Coworking Europe, citing reporting from Norwegian business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv and Statistics Norway data, says the number of Norwegian companies and branches controlled from Switzerland increased by 47 during 2024.
Norway’s wealth and dividend taxes have been part of the debate around entrepreneurs moving abroad, while Norway has also tightened rules governing taxation when individuals leave the country. Tax decisions are complex and differ substantially between individuals, so it would be too simplistic to suggest that every relocation is purely tax-driven.
But from an office-market perspective, the motivation is almost secondary.
What matters is what happens after a founder moves.
An entrepreneur relocating internationally may need somewhere to register or establish a business presence, hold meetings, receive partners, build a professional local network and operate immediately without waiting months for a conventional office lease.
That is almost a textbook use case for flexible workspace.
The difference is that this customer is not necessarily looking for the cheapest desk or a casual coworking membership. They may place considerably greater value on privacy, credibility, location, administrative support and introductions to the local business ecosystem.
The rise of the “soft-landing office”
International expansion has long created demand for serviced offices. Companies entering a new country often choose flexible space because it removes much of the friction associated with fitting out and managing their own premises.
Entrepreneur migration creates a similar requirement, but at a smaller and more individual level.
Think of it as a soft-landing office.
Instead of selling square metres alone, an operator can bundle several pieces of infrastructure that an internationally mobile entrepreneur needs during the first months in a new market.
Workspace is one part of it. A credible business address may be another. Meeting facilities, administrative assistance and introductions to accountants, lawyers, recruiters or other founders can be just as important.
Community takes on a different meaning here too.
Traditional coworking communities often emphasise serendipitous encounters between freelancers and startups. For a relocating entrepreneur, community can reduce the information gap associated with entering a new country. Someone who has already opened a company, found suppliers or learned how the local market operates can be exceptionally valuable to the person arriving next.
This makes the community itself part of the commercial proposition.
Location strategy may become more specialised
The Lucerne example also raises an interesting question for operators: could demographic and regulatory changes help determine where future flex-space demand appears?
Flexible office expansion strategies usually focus on metrics such as office stock, corporate demand, transport accessibility, residential density and local employment.
Those remain fundamental. But internationally mobile entrepreneurs introduce another layer.
Tax changes, residency patterns, cross-border investment flows and clusters of specific nationalities can create concentrated pockets of demand that may not immediately appear in conventional office-market statistics.
Switzerland is an obvious market in which to observe this because cantons compete as business locations and the country already attracts internationally mobile companies and high-net-worth individuals.
But the principle is broader.
Cities attracting technology founders, family offices, international consultants or businesses relocating for regulatory reasons could generate similar opportunities. Operators that recognise those communities early may be able to create highly targeted workspace products rather than waiting for traditional leasing demand to emerge.
Beyond desks: flex operators as business platforms
This trend reinforces a wider shift already taking place in flexible workspace.
The product is becoming less about access to a desk and more about removing friction from doing business.
For some customers, that means an app that lets employees access offices around the world. For large companies, it can mean managed headquarters without a long conventional lease. For relocating entrepreneurs, it may mean workspace combined with a business address, local services and an instant professional network.
Operators do not need to become immigration advisers or tax consultants and should be careful not to cross into regulated professional advice.
They can, however, become connectors.
A workspace can bring together vetted external specialists, provide practical information and build partnerships with organisations that international businesses already rely on. In that model, the operator owns the workplace experience while a wider ecosystem supports the customer’s transition.
That can also create a stronger competitive moat. Desks and meeting rooms are relatively easy to replicate. A trusted local network built around a specific customer community is much harder to copy.
A small niche with a bigger lesson
Norwegian entrepreneurs moving to Switzerland will not suddenly transform Europe’s entire flexible office market. The numbers remain modest compared with mainstream corporate and SME demand.
But the Lucerne example is valuable precisely because it reveals how specific new workspace markets can form.
Changes in taxation, regulation, technology and migration do not only influence where people live. They can change where businesses are managed, where meetings happen and where professional communities emerge.
For flexible workspace operators, the opportunity is therefore not simply to follow office demand. It is to understand what creates that demand in the first place.
The next promising coworking location may be identified not only through property data, but through changes in how entrepreneurs, capital and companies move across borders.
