Office occupancy hits post-lockdown high of 35%

The national weekly average of office occupancy reached 35% last week, marking a new post-lockdown high. The data from Remit Consulting reflects a week with no national rail strikes or industrial action taken by public sector workers. The previous week had seen a dip to 31%, coinciding with the major strike action seen on Wednesday 1 February. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are now typically the busiest days for office occupancy. Remit recorded a national average occupancy above 40% for these three days last week, up from 35% during the strike week. Remit Consulting real estate consultant Lorna Landells said: “Excluding weekly fluctuations, there has been a steady increase in the number of office-based staff returning to the workplace on a daily basis over the past 12 months. “So far this year, this gradual increase has continued, albeit with lower figures on certain days caused by the impact of industrial action and these strong figures were from what could be considered to be a regular week without any major disruptions.” In London, the Docklands submarket, with a weekly average of 53.9%, once again outperformed the West End which experienced a weekly average occupancy rate of 43.9% last week. Remit’s data is provided by building managers from office buildings in major cities around the UK, many in central and prime locations. The data is obtained from the buildings’ access control systems, providing an overview of the number of staff and visitors entering a property on weekdays. This is presented as a percentage of the capacity of each building. To send feedback, e-mail julia.cahill@eg.co.uk or tweet @EGJuliaC or @EGPropertyNews Office Photo @ Stefan Ziese/imageBROKER/Shutterstock