What is coworking?
Coworking has been around for a while now, it’s had more of a spotlight after COVID-19 and the increase of remote and hybrid working. Essentially, rather than working at home or in your local coffee shop you get to hang out with other like minded people in a comfortable space designed for community and connection. At Basestation, you can rent a desk by the hour, day, week or longer, if you are on calls a lot or have a lot of confidential calls - we have small offices you can rent. Our residents have access to our five meeting rooms as well as discounted rates to hire out our event space.

Why coworking?
Many of us still remember what it was like in the COVID-19 lockdowns working from home; not needing to deal with the morning commute and joining online calls in your tracksuit bottoms and hanging out with our pets. The downside was the social isolation - the loss of interpersonal communication, a sense of community and connection. This is where coworking plays a major role for those who work remotely, small business owners, independent contractors, digital nomads, etc. Coworking isn’t just somewhere to rent a desk - it’s a place where you can connect, build community and relationships.

A little bit of history
Between 2006 and 2015, a few studies showed that the number of coworking spaces and available seats have roughly doubled each year. Coworking was preceded by European hacker spaces of the 1990s (part of the dot.com boom), where programmers would exchange skills and best practices. Some coworking places were developed by remote workers and entrepreneurs seeking an alternative to working in coffeehouses and cafes, or to combat isolation in independent or home offices. Another major factor that drives demand for coworking is the growing role of independent contractors, digital nomads, and remote or hybrid employees. In New Zealand, coworking became more popular as the prices of commercial spaces and bills rose, with coworking being up to 25% cheaper for most freelancers and businesses.

• According to the Shared Space 2024 report:
• There are 194 coworking and flexible workspaces in NZ
• Basestation is one of the 9 coworking spaces in the Bay of Plenty
• The average year-on-year market growth rate in this sector (since 2013) is 22%
• Tuesday is the busiest day in NZ coworking spaces (at Basestation it’s a Thursday)
• 82% of coworking spaces in NZ are owned by New Zealanders (18% are internationally owned). Basestation is proudly 100% NZ owned and operated
• The most common business sectors in NZ coworking spaces (in order of most popular first) :
  • Technology
  • Finance
  • Creative
  • Marketing
  • Legal

Interested in trying coworking for yourself?
We have a monthly Open Day, so if you’ve never hot desked at Basestation you can try it for FREE for the whole day!
Interested? Send us an email at info@basestation.nz

We are located at 148 Durham Street, Tauranga
Our hours are 8:30am - 5:00pm Monday - Friday

We hope to see you soon.