Stay in Your Lane: A Strategic Dilemma for Flex Operators
2025 was a wake-up call for flex office operators. The flex market was hit hard, margins tightened, and the pandemic-era growth sugar rush finally wore off. As 2026 kicks off, the question is about where and how to compete.
Treating flex as a single unified market is gone. Today, the sector has split into clear tiers: prime, enterprise-ready flex assets on one side, and sub-scale, opportunistic flex stock on the other. Trying to straddle both has proven costly. Operators who chase every opportunity often find themselves overextended, undercapitalised, and exposed when the market shifts.
So, should you stay in your lane? The answer isn’t one-size-fits-all but there are a few ways to think about it.
1. Staying in your Lane: Depth Over Breadth
Doubling down on your strengths, whether that’s a specific location, customer type, or operational model, can be a powerful strategy for flex operators. Focused operators can:
Build deep operational expertise and efficiency
Understand their ideal customers intimately
Price and structure deals with confidence, not guesswork
The danger is complacency: staying in one lane only works if the lane itself is well-chosen and defensible. If your lane is crowded, undercapitalised, or misaligned with emerging demand, sticking to it won’t save you. Things like connectivity, enterprise grade tech, and reliable systems let you execute your lane efficiently. Having those basics right makes depth far easier to sustain.
2. Expanding: Growth with Eyes Wide Open
Diversification isn’t automatically bad, but it must be deliberate. Opportunistic expansion in the flex market can work if you approach it like a portfolio manager:
Know your segments: Understand how prime, enterprise-ready, and sub-scale markets behave differently.
Test before you commit: Pilot new offerings or locations in small doses, learn then scale.
Align with core capabilities: Expansion should leverage your operational, tech, and financial strengths.
Blind expansion, chasing headline numbers or “market share,” is the fastest path to overextension. A little foresight and the right systems in place can make the difference between a successful flex office pilot and an expensive misstep.
3. The Real Edge: Strategic Discipline
Ultimately, the question isn’t lane vs. diversification, it’s how ruthlessly disciplined you are about where you play and how you execute. Flex operators who succeed are the ones who:
Pick lanes that match their strength and market realities
Know where to say “no” to misaligned deals
Use expansion strategically, not opportunistically
Flex is not forgiving to those who try to do everything at once. Staying in your lane doesn’t have to mean staying in your comfort zone. As Joe Robinson notes: “Evolution in flex is making the market more murky… shadow flex is having a major impact on competitiveness.”
Even small operational advantages such as tech-enabled tenant management or data-driven occupancy insights can give operators the clarity and confidence to stick to their lane or expand intelligently.
Choose your Lane or Own Multiple, but do it intentionally
Some operators thrive by perfecting a single niche. Others succeed by carefully building a portfolio of complementary lanes. The common thread? Every move must be intentional, measured, and aligned with your capabilities. In 2026, those will be the flex operators who turn last year’s pain into next year’s potential.
