Guwahati is among the Tier-II and Tier-III cities in India that have recorded a double-digit increase in visits to flexible office and coworking spaces, according to data released by International Workplace Group (IWG) on Wednesday.
The city recorded a rise in workspace visits between December 2025 and May 2026 compared with the preceding six-month period, June to November 2025, IWG said. However, the company did not disclose the exact percentage increase for Guwahati.
The findings come amid a shift towards flexible and hybrid working arrangements, with companies increasingly allowing employees to work closer to where they live, reducing commuting time and improving work-life balance.
IWG, which operates workspace brands including Regus and Spaces, said it has expanded its network in smaller Indian cities over the past two years, with new locations opening in Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Amritsar, Calicut, Dehradun, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Nagpur, Trivandrum and Vadodara.
The company added 43 new locations in India in the first half of 2026, while 728 new locations were signed globally during the same period.
Coimbatore recorded the highest growth in workspace visits among the Tier-II and Tier-III cities covered by the analysis, with a 41% increase. Jalandhar followed with 25%, while Nashik recorded a 21% rise. Dehradun and Mohali registered increases of 19% and 17%, respectively.
The analysis compared Wi-Fi logins at IWG centres that remained open throughout both six-month periods. The company classified Tier-II and Tier-III cities as those outside Delhi NCR, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.
According to data from real estate consultancy Vestian cited in the release, Tier-II cities now have more than 575 flexible workspace centres, accounting for nearly 29% of the country’s total. Flexible workspaces in these cities can cost up to 50% less than those in metropolitan areas, the report said.
Christian Schmitz, chief executive officer of IWG, said the increase in workspace usage in smaller cities reflected the growing adoption of flexible working arrangements by businesses and employees.
He said companies were increasingly looking for workplace strategies that provided access to professional workspaces closer to employees’ homes, while allowing businesses to reduce their reliance on fixed real estate.
Harsh Lambah, country head and vice-president of sales for SAARC at IWG, said Tier-II and Tier-III cities offered businesses access to new markets and local talent as companies looked beyond metropolitan centres for growth.
Ready-to-use professional workspaces allow businesses to establish teams and expand without significant upfront investment, he said, adding that the company’s partnership-based expansion model helped it respond to demand.
Separately, research by Colliers cited in the release projects that 40% of India’s population will live in urban areas in the coming years, with Tier-II cities emerging as important growth centres. Flexible workspaces are expected to account for 20–25% of overall office leasing in India in the near term, according to the research.
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