Coworking Gold Rush: The Serious Money Pouring Into Ballarat's Remote Work Boom

A new coworking hub is set to open on Sturt Street by September 2026, backed by $4.2 million in combined funding from regional development grants and a Melbourne-based venture firm, making it the largest single investment in shared workspace infrastructure Ballarat has seen. The project, led by Central Victoria Workspace Co., will occupy the refurbished upper floors of a heritage building near the Town Hall precinct, adding 180 dedicated desks and 12 private offices to a market that barely existed here five years ago.

The timing matters. Across Australia, the post-pandemic hybrid work settlement has hardened into something permanent. Major employers are no longer wrestling with whether to allow remote work, they're redesigning payroll structures around it. That shift has sent a wave of skilled professionals out of Melbourne, and Ballarat, sitting 112 kilometres up the Western Freeway, has caught more of that wave than almost any regional city its size. Property prices remain roughly 40 percent below Melbourne's median, the V/Line train to Southern Cross takes under 90 minutes, and the city's fibre broadband coverage, expanded under the federal government's Regional Connectivity Program, now reaches more than 94 percent of commercial addresses.

Local Players Already Cashing In

The investment surge didn't start with Central Victoria Workspace Co. The Forge, operating out of a converted warehouse on Lydiard Street North since 2022, quietly doubled its membership base in the 12 months to March 2026, reaching 340 active members. Hot-desk memberships there run at $35 per day or $320 per month, prices that would be considered cheap in Fitzroy but represent a real premium over working from a kitchen table. The Forge's operators applied for, and received, a $180,000 grant through Invest Victoria's Regional Innovation Fund in February, money earmarked for expanding its event space and installing AV infrastructure for hybrid meeting capability.

Federation University has also moved aggressively into this space. Its SME Hub, anchored at the Mt Helen campus but with a city-centre satellite on Dana Street, has enrolled 67 small businesses in its co-location program since January. The university sees the coworking trend not just as real estate opportunity but as a pipeline for continuing education enrolments, businesses that plant themselves in a university-adjacent workspace are, the thinking goes, more likely to upskill through short courses and micro-credentials.

What the Numbers Actually Show

Nationally, the coworking sector pulled in $1.1 billion in operator revenue during the 2025 financial year, according to IBISWorld data published in May, a 22 percent jump on the prior year. Vacancy rates at established Ballarat sites sat at just 8 percent across the first quarter of 2026, compared to 31 percent in Melbourne's CBD office towers. Developers are reading that gap clearly. Two additional projects are in planning permit stages with the City of Ballarat, including a 900-square-metre space proposed for the Bakery Hill precinct that would target creative and tech sector tenants specifically.

The Pegasus spyware scandal that broke this week as a reminder of how exposed mobile workers can be has also prompted at least one local operator to announce a cybersecurity partnership with a regional IT firm, a detail that would have seemed niche two years ago but now lands as a genuine selling point for enterprise clients weighing up coworking memberships.

For workers considering the move, the practical calculus is straightforward. A full-time desk at any of Ballarat's established spaces costs between $3,800 and $5,500 per year, well under the $12,000-plus that equivalent space runs in Melbourne's inner suburbs. Businesses already based here should get applications for the next round of Invest Victoria regional grants in before the August 15 deadline, as the fund has historically been oversubscribed. And anyone watching the Sturt Street development would do well to register interest early: Central Victoria Workspace Co. says it already has a waiting list of 40 prospective members, and the doors haven't opened yet.