Corporate occupiers expect to shrink workspace by 20-30%
Almost one-third of corporate real estate professionals expect to lessen their space requirements by 20-30%, according to a survey at this year’s CoreNet Global Summit in Chicago.
The survey, undertaken by Colliers, questioned some 500 professionals on their corporate real estate needs.
When it came to the hybrid working trend just 3.1% of respondents thought that it would lead to more space being needed, with 3.9% believing it would have no impact at all. The vast majority of respondents said hybrid working would lead to an overall reduction in office space of between 10% and 50%. Some 16.7% said it would lead to a 10-20% reduction, 29.8% to a 20-30% reduction, 23% to a 30-40% reduction and 12.7% to a 40-50% reduction.
Almost one-third of corporate real estate professionals expect to lessen their space requirements by 20-30%, according to a survey at this year’s CoreNet Global Summit in Chicago.
The survey, undertaken by Colliers, questioned some 500 professionals on their corporate real estate needs.
When it came to the hybrid working trend just 3.1% of respondents thought that it would lead to more space being needed, with 3.9% believing it would have no impact at all. The vast majority of respondents said hybrid working would lead to an overall reduction in office space of between 10% and 50%. Some 16.7% said it would lead to a 10-20% reduction, 29.8% to a 20-30% reduction, 23% to a 30-40% reduction and 12.7% to a 40-50% reduction.
The shift to hybrid was expected to accelerate the move from traditional leases to flex leases, with more than half of respondents believing that within five years between 10-30% of all leases would be flexible.
“This reduction in office space demand for an occupier presents other opportunities for them, which could show up as pure savings,” said Scott Nelson, chief executive of occupier services, global at Colliers. “However, this could also present the opportunity to shift spend to the experience the employee gets in the office, or help fund cost increases coming elsewhere, such as industrial real estate for some businesses or people costs.”
“The use of the office is evolving into space for collaboration, teamwork and private space for the employee,” added Tim Venable, senior vice president, research and content development at CoreNet Global. “While the employee may be in the office fewer days or hours per week, the new configurations mean that the time spent on site will be more valuable and efficient.”
Colliers’ survey also revealed that most corporates now believed that a successful utilisation of office space would be between 45-79% occupancy, and that the most important measure to ensure this “successful utilisation” was managers and leaders taking ownership to ensure time in the office was valuable.
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