Two types of office setup dominate most conversations about workspace: the traditional commercial lease and the open-plan coworking desk. Both solve part of the problem and create a new one.
A commercial lease gives you privacy. It also gives you a deposit worth three months of rent, a fit-out project before you can move in, utility contracts to manage, and a minimum term of one to five years. For a team of four, this is significant overhead before a single productive hour is worked.
A hot desk in a coworking space removes all of that overhead. But it also removes privacy, team identity, and any sense that your business has a permanent presence. A confidential client call in an open-plan space is a contradiction.
The private office within a coworking building answers both. A lockable, dedicated space for your team. All the amenities and community of a professional coworking environment. A month-to-month lease with nothing to build and nothing to manage. This is the model, and it is increasingly the default choice for small teams in Malta who need a real office without the commitments that traditionally come with one.
Privacy and focus — without the isolation
A private office in a coworking building is a closed door. That door can be locked. What goes on behind it is not visible or audible to the rest of the floor. Client calls, team discussions, confidential documents, company meetings — all of these work exactly as they would in a standalone commercial space.
The difference is what surrounds the door. In a standalone commercial building, when you step outside your office, you are in a corridor, a car park, or a building managed by a facilities company you pay separately. In a coworking building, when you step outside your office, you are in a shared space filled with other professionals: a kitchen, a lounge, a coworking floor, and a community of people building businesses.
The private office model does not force you to choose between the two. The door is there when you need it. The community is there when you want it.
Team identity and culture
One of the underappreciated arguments for a private office over a hot desk arrangement is what it does for team culture. A team that shares a dedicated space starts to develop a working environment that belongs to them: their own setup, their own systems, their own rhythm.
Hot desking prevents this. When nobody has a fixed seat, nobody accumulates the context that comes from a shared physical space. A team that arrives at different times to different desks never fully establishes the informal communication patterns that most productive teams depend on.
A private office in a coworking building gives a small team its own space without cutting it off from the broader environment. The team has a home. But the building around them is alive.
Networking without the obligation
One of the most cited reasons for choosing coworking over a standalone office is the community. The practical reality is that community requires proximity and occasion, not just proximity alone.
In a coworking building, the network is available by default: other businesses, professionals from different sectors, community events, and the kind of informal conversations that happen near a coffee machine or in a shared kitchen. None of this requires active effort beyond showing up.
For a team in a private office, this network is accessible but not intrusive. You can participate in community events, attend SOHO TALKS, meet members in the shared spaces, and build professional relationships across industries without any of it interfering with the focused work happening behind your closed door.
For client-facing businesses: being embedded in a professional building surrounded by other established companies creates credibility by proximity. Your clients arrive at a building with a managed reception, other businesses on the floors above and below, and a professional environment throughout. That context matters.
Professional address and front-of-house services
A private office in a coworking building typically includes things that a standalone commercial lease does not: a registered business address at a recognisable location, reception staff who handle your visitors and mail, and a front-of-house environment that presents well to anyone who comes to meet you.
For international companies establishing a Malta presence, a legitimate business address at a professional coworking location is often a requirement for banking applications, regulatory submissions, and client credibility. A virtual address does not meet the same standard. A serviced private office does.
At SOHO, private office memberships include reception services across all three Malta locations: The Strand in Gzira, St. Julian’s in Paceville, and Savoy Gardens in Gzira. Each is an established, recognisable business address in a central Malta location.
Flexibility at every stage
The commercial lease model commits you to a space before you know exactly what you need. You sign for a floor plan based on your team size today, fitted out and furnished at your expense, on a lease that runs for years regardless of what happens to the business.
A private office in a coworking building works the opposite way.
Month-to-month contracts mean you are not locked in. If the team grows beyond the current office, you upgrade to a larger space within the same building. If business conditions change, you are not carrying the overhead of an empty commercial lease. The contract term flexes with the business, not the other way around.
There is also no fit-out. SOHO’s private offices are furnished and operational on day one. The internet is connected. The coffee is in the kitchen. The meeting rooms are bookable from the moment you have a membership. For companies that have been through the logistics of setting up a standalone office before, the difference in time and cost is not marginal.
Amenities that would cost significantly more elsewhere
The monthly cost of a SOHO private office is all-inclusive in a way that most workspace comparisons understate. Here is what is covered:
- High-speed Wi-Fi — included, not a separate IT contract
- Gym membership — included, not a separate monthly cost
- Meeting rooms — included, with member rates applying to additional bookings
- Reception services — included, not a separate front-of-house hire
- Kitchen access — shared kitchen with coffee, tea, and basics
- Server room access — included
- CCTV security — included
- Private chef lunches — included
- Community events — included, including SOHO TALKS and social programming
In a standalone commercial space, most of these are either absent or charged separately. When all of these are factored in, the all-inclusive monthly fee of a serviced private office competes far more favourably against the total cost of occupancy of a commercial lease than a simple per-square-metre comparison suggests.
Traditional lease vs. serviced private office: the actual comparison
| Item | Traditional commercial lease | SOHO Private Office |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit | 2-3 months rent | None |
| Furniture and fit-out | €5,000-€20,000+ | Included |
| Utilities (electricity, water) | Separate contracts | Included |
| Internet | Separate contract | Included |
| Meeting rooms | Not included | Included (member rates) |
| Gym | Not included | Included |
| Reception | Separate hire or none | Included |
| Community and events | None | Included |
| Minimum term | 1-5 years typical | Month-to-month available |
| Move-in timeline | Weeks to months | Day one |
SOHO Private Office starts from €600/month. The comparison above does not account for the deposit and fit-out costs on a commercial lease, which on their own typically exceed the first year of a private office membership at SOHO.
When a private office in coworking is the right choice
The model suits a specific set of situations well. It is not the right answer for every business — a team of fifty with specific infrastructure requirements will find a bespoke commercial space more appropriate. But for the following, it tends to be the better option:
- Teams of 2-10 people who need a proper office environment without a long-term lease and a fit-out project
- Client-facing businesses in professional services, tech, iGaming, or regulated sectors where the office environment affects how clients perceive the business
- International companies establishing a Malta base who need a functioning office, a registered address, and a professional environment from day one
- Companies that have outgrown hot desking and need private space, but are not ready for the overhead of a standalone commercial lease
- Businesses that need flexibility because team size, market conditions, or growth trajectory is not yet fixed
The SOHO Private Office is available at three Malta locations, starting from €600/month. Each location offers different sizes and configurations to suit teams at different stages.
Frequently asked questions
What is a private office in a coworking space?
A private office in a coworking space is a dedicated, lockable room or suite within a larger coworking building. The office is exclusively for your team, but you share the building’s amenities, community, and services with other members. It combines the privacy and team identity of a standalone office with the amenities and community of a coworking environment.
How is it different from hot desking?
Hot desking means taking any available seat when you arrive, with no fixed location and no guaranteed privacy. A private office is a dedicated space that belongs to your team: same location every day, lockable, and separate from the open coworking floor. It also includes a registered business address and is better suited to client-facing businesses and teams who need consistent, confidential working space.
What is included in SOHO’s Private Office?
SOHO’s Private Office membership includes: fully furnished space, high-speed Wi-Fi, gym membership, meeting room access (with member rates), reception services, kitchen access, server room, CCTV security, private chef lunches, and access to community events including SOHO TALKS. All of this is covered by the monthly membership fee, which starts from €600/month.
Can a team grow within a private office at SOHO?
Yes. SOHO’s private offices come in different sizes to accommodate teams of different sizes. If a team grows and needs a larger space, it can upgrade within the same building without the disruption of moving to a new address or renegotiating a commercial lease. Membership terms are flexible, which makes this transition straightforward.