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Real Estate Insights Offices – reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

Nick French (Real Estate Valuation Theurgy, Chichester, UK)

Journal of Property Investment & Finance

ISSN: 1463-578X

Article publication date: 13 May 2022

Issue publication date: 3 August 2022

350

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this Real Estate Insight is to comment upon the role that offices will play in the post-COVID 19 work environment. The impact of lockdowns, worldwide, was to accelerate the changes in office use that were already beginning in the late 2010s as changes in work culture and practice and supporting technology were slowly transforming the way in which people worked.

Design/methodology/approach

This Real Estate Insight will comment upon changes in the UK market as a bellwether for global working practices. The nature of the “Insights” briefings means that this is a personal view of the author.

Findings

This paper looks at office usage in a transitional, post-COVID 19, marketplace. The findings are a reasoned conjecture that traditional office use still has a place for the workforce of the 2020s and beyond, although office use will be less intense as workers adopt a range of other working practices, including coworking and working at home, outside the four walls of the physical office building.

Practical implications

As with all property investment, the value and performance of the property assets is interlinked with the use and demand of the space in question. There will be a rebasing of rents as the use of office space becomes less intense and the lowering of unit costs will allow companies to restructure the internal space to accommodate a more flexible working environment.

Originality/value

This is a review of the UK office market in relation to a seismic change in how workers choose to work post COVID-19.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This paper forms part of a special section “Real Estate Insights”, guest edited by Laura Gabrielli and Stefania Fiorentino.

Citation

French, N. (2022), "Real Estate Insights Offices – reports of my death are greatly exaggerated", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 524-528. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPIF-04-2022-0032

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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