The "work from anywhere" trend will continue to pick up steam in 2022, a team of Colliers analysts predicts, with some imbalance to be expected between car-dependent secondary suburbs and dense urban cities. 

That's good news for the burgeoning flex space sector: while office occupancy levels in cities like Dallas and Houston have reached more than 40%, utilization rates are closer to 15-20% in dense urban centers like Manhattan and San Francisco. The very nature of office work is undergoing a "sea change," according to Colliers, with work patterns shifting to a more hybrid model and employees demanding more flexibility about where they work.

"While operators have largely regeared their agreements with landlords over the last 18 months, user interest in flexible workspace has expanded as firms reassess their occupational portfolio needs in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing shifts in work patterns," the report notes. "Owners are being much more creative in their approach to delivering flexible workspace solutions by carefully looking at their product mix and delivery models. Concurrently, increased institutional interest is creating more transparency, which will aid in the maturity of the sector."