Office space markets will never be the same, or will they? Are we staring into the office market abyss, or is this just a temporary blip? These and other unknowns have many of us questioning what does the future hold for office space in a post-COVID-19 world?
While the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic is far from known, it is already reasonable to expect office space markets will suffer a sizeable blow, at least in the short-term. A combination of lost revenues, a smaller workforce, and recessionary conditions, will all conspire to reduce the demand for office space.
Work From Home
With a global recession clearly underway, highlighted by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent pronouncement that the world economy was at a “near standstill”, companies across every industry and every region are aggressively cutting costs and preserving capital. In tandem, many, if not a vast majority of companies have adopted a work from home approach to keep their employees safe while keeping their businesses afloat. The results of this grand work-from-home experiment are far from known; however, the upshot of COVID-19 is companies that had long resisted a work-from-home program have now been forced to make a cultural shift towards remote working.
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