Demetrio Zema is starting his own law firm. The 28-year-old has a desk in Cluster, a co-working space in Market Street in central Melbourne. He also wants the commercial litigation firm, which he is calling Law Squared, to have a presence in Sydney and will base himself one day a week at Gravity, a co-working space in Carrington Street, until he hires someone locally.

The cost attraction to a small business of flexible facilities is obvious. But the benefit of using co-working spaces is starting to be appreciated more broadly. For Zema, it means he has customers on tap. So too, for that matter, do all of his neighbours.