THE UK’s regional towns and cities will be flooded with undesirable places of work as companies reduce down on unused space after the coronavirus pandemic triggered a shift in working patterns.
As a lot as 20% of space within the office markets within the south east of England that it covers may turn out to be redundant, in accordance to a survey carried out by actual property dealer Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH).
That’s about 26 million sq ft of office space, greater than 50 Gherkin skyscrapers or the equal of greater than double all the ground space of places of work in Reading, a metropolis about 60km west of London.
The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in a fierce debate about future demand for office space, as employees who have been requested to keep at dwelling to restrict the virus unfold are reluctant to return to full-time office-based working.
While office occupancy ranges have been slowly rising, it’s changing into clearer that a big proportion of companies have accepted a component of dwelling working as a everlasting characteristic.
Just 15% of the executives surveyed by LSH stated their staff have been again within the office for 4 days every week, down from 90% pre-pandemic. A complete of 72% stated staff now attended the office on three days or fewer, LSH stated in an announcement.
Offices in central London have been excluded from the survey.
“We are now seeing evidence to support the assumption that the enforced working from home experiment of 2020 and 2021 has changed the office landscape irrevocably,” LSH head of analysis Oliver du Sautoy says.
“This has far-reaching implications for the real estate sector and cannot be ignored by landlords and investors.”
Many of the world’s greatest actual property buyers proceed to wager on the office market, specializing in the perfect and greenest buildings, anticipating that firms will be ready to pay excessive rents as they scale back their general footprint and look to lure staff again.
Private fairness agency Brookfield Asset Management Inc has snapped up a collection of office landlords round Europe up to now yr.
Just 8% of companies plan to improve their office space whereas 72% stated they might look to scale back it, LSH stated.
But whereas most UK employers have to this point been cautious about demanding their employees return, about 62% stated they’ve or will quickly put in place new guidelines to encourage a rise in office attendance, the dealer’s knowledge present. — Bloomberg
