By Garry Marr
CoStar News

Wednesday is the most popular day to come into a coworking office, at least based on Wi-Fi data in Canada from the world's largest shared office space provider.

IWG, which operates 130 locations including under its Spaces and Regus brands in Canada, said visits to its coworking and flexible workspaces are rising rapidly. Office usage is being watched closely in the commercial real estate industry in many countries after the pandemic made remote working popular and prompted companies to reassess their workspace needs.

IWG said data on when people log in to the office showed visits at its coworking locations were up 45% in March from January across the country.

"We are seeing in real-time more and more people in our spaces, not only in Canada but across the more than one hundred countries that we operate in," said Wayne Berger, chief executive of IWG Americas, in a statement. "The data shows there is a strong appetite to spend part of the time in an office environment, whether that’s at a local flexspace or a central HQ."

The national survey found that Tuesday and Thursday were the most popular days to come into the office after Wednesday.

IWG, which operates about 3,500 locations across the globe, said suburban areas and small towns and cities have been a real growth area for the company as employees want to work closer to home to reduce their commutes. In Canada, suburban locations experienced the largest increase in in-office visits in March, with Dartmouth leading the way with a 163% increase in visits to IWG's Regus location at Metropolitan Place compared to January. That was followed by Hamilton visits up 121% and Waterloo traffic increasing 116%.

IWG said all major cities in Canada saw an uptick in people working from its coworking locations, with Toronto visits up 43% in March compared to January, followed by Montreal and Vancouver tied at a 42% increase and Calgary visits up 41%.

IWG is expanding across Canada this year in response to the growing demand for hybrid work arrangements in both urban and suburban markets. In Nova Scotia, IWG opened a 14,000-square-foot Spaces location in Dartmouth at 2 Ralston Ave. in April.

"The growing popularity of hybrid working means workers now have the freedom and flexibility to choose a location to work that best suits their lifestyle," Berger said in the statement.