The coworking industry is expected to continue expanding over the next few years, and its entrance into Saudi Arabia’s market could mean big things for the country.
“The flexible workspace market is projected to reach $44 billion in value by 2021, and an increasing number of newer businesses and well-established corporates increasingly prefer to use serviced workspaces in Saudi Arabia,” said Dr. Eyad Reda, chairman of Servcorp Saudi.
Over the past three years, the number of global coworking spaces has doubled and memberships have tripled. Still, there is still a supply shortage in Saudi, with there being an estimated 3.4 coworking spaces for every 1 million workers. In comparison, there are around 32 coworking spaces for every 1 million workers in the US.
With the entrepreneurial community in Saudi steadily growing, there has been an increased demand for coworking spaces.
The Saudi government has also shown support for these coworking spaces. The country’s Public Investment Fund has invested $45 billion in SoftBank’s Vision Fund, which owns a majority stake in one of the most well-known coworking companies WeWork.