IWG Acquires Fora: What the Deal Means for Germany

What exactly did IWG acquire from Fora?

IWG is acquiring the German Fora entity TOG 2 (Germany) Limited and, with it, the five German Fora locations. According to the filing with the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt), this is an indirect acquisition of all shares and sole control over this company. The transaction was filed on 17 April 2026 under case number B1-69/26, product market: office real estate.

The buyer was not officially confirmed at first. The fact that it is IWG emerges from the filing with the Federal Cartel Office, which the Immobilien Zeitung, among others, reported on in May 2026. It concerns exclusively Fora's German business, not the locations in the United Kingdom.

The move is part of a series. First IWG took over the German premium provider Design Offices with around 50 locations, and now the German Fora spaces follow. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, the group signed 382 new locations worldwide according to konii.de (June 2026), 66 of them in Germany.

Which Fora locations are affected?

Five Fora locations in three German cities are affected: three in Berlin plus one each in Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main. All of them are high-quality city-centre locations, a profile that fits IWG's expansion in the premium segment well.

The five German Fora locations at a glance:

For existing customers at these locations, little is likely to change in the short term. With the change of ownership, however, the usual questions about brand, service level and terms arise. You can find current location profiles and availability in Berlin via our location map for Berlin.

Who is Fora and why is the company leaving Germany?

Fora is a British premium brand for flex and serviced offices, headquartered in London. In 2022, Fora and The Office Group (TOG) merged and have since operated under the single consumer-facing brand Fora, with The Office Group as the parent company. This is how the industry platform Coworking Europe (April 2026) describes it.

The sale of the German business is part of a strategic realignment. According to Coworking Europe, Fora is refocusing more strongly on its British home market and on the managed office format, where demand in London continues to grow. In parallel, the company is expanding there, for example with a new location in Shoreditch and a large new opening.

From a market perspective, this is a familiar pattern: an international provider withdraws from a foreign market in which a larger platform operator can capture economies of scale more effectively. These very spaces are attractive for IWG because they fit the group's premium and city-centre focus.

Why is IWG acquiring yet again?

IWG is acquiring because the group consistently scales its platform strategy through acquisitions. By its own account, IWG is the world's largest provider of flexible workspace and operates around 4,000 locations in more than 120 countries, with revenue of about 3.7 billion US dollars (2024) and around 10,000 employees, according to Coworking Europe and allwork.space.

The group is increasingly shifting its weight towards a capital-light franchise and management-partner model, often compared in the industry to hotel chains such as Hilton or Marriott. Acquisitions fit well into this model: take over existing, established spaces, lift them onto its own platform and realise economies of scale.

The Fora takeover therefore follows the same logic as the Design Offices deal. We explain in detail how the group operates strategically in Germany in our analysis of the takeover of Design Offices by IWG.

What does the takeover mean for the German flex office market?

For the German market, the Fora takeover represents a further stage of consolidation. Within just a few months, IWG has picked up two established premium providers with Design Offices and the German Fora spaces. As a result, a growing share of the high-quality city-centre supply is concentrating in a single, well-capitalised group.

The background: with Design Offices, around 50 locations in 15 German cities and roughly 260,000 square metres of premium space came into IWG's portfolio, with Design Offices posting annual revenue of 142 million euros (2024). The five Fora locations selectively complement this picture in prime locations in Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt.

For competition, this means more market power in premium locations and more pace in the consolidation. At the same time, room opens up for providers that focus on personal advice, flexibility and independence. The more complex the market becomes, the greater the need for neutral guidance. The change of leadership at the top of IWG, incidentally, falls in exactly this phase, which we put into context in our article on Mark Dixon's withdrawal as IWG CEO.

What does this mean for Fora customers and office seekers?

For Fora customers: existing contracts will initially continue unchanged, in all likelihood. The practically most important question is whether the Fora brand will remain in Germany or be transferred over the medium term into IWG brands such as Regus or Spaces. That question is still open, and it will determine positioning, service level and terms.

Anyone currently looking for a flex office encounters a market that is more professional, but also more concentrated than it was just a few years ago. More locations under one corporate roof increase availability, but can make comparison harder when several brands belong to the same group. We provide an initial orientation on when a classic office and when a flex office pays off in our guide Rent an office or flex office?.

This is exactly where independent advice comes in. Instead of relying on the portfolio of a single group, it is worth comparing across all providers, especially in prime locations such as Frankfurt and Hamburg, where the acquired Fora spaces are located.

Conclusion

IWG is taking over the German Fora locations and, after Design Offices, is continuing the consolidation of the German flex office market. Five premium locations in Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt are changing hands, while Fora focuses on the British market.

For companies looking for an office, it is less the individual deal that matters than the market movement behind it: the market is growing and becoming more concentrated at the same time, and with it grows the value of independent guidance. We are following how things develop with the brand and terms of the acquired locations.