As we start a new year, the office outlook is still mixed. Although more companies are requiring employees to be in the office some days per week, we are far from the high occupancy that many central business districts enjoyed before 2020. Companies are still figuring out their workplace strategies – how often to bring in employees and how to better use their space for the reality of work today.
The office market is still struggling with high interest rates and increased levels of remote work, producing a tough lending environment and frozen deals on the sales side, and generous concessions and terms that favor tenants in leasing. That said, there are glimmers of hope.
With the increasing push to return to the office, employers and developers are tasked with sweetening the deal for current and future employees in the office and industrial markets. Promises of increased collaboration with the return to in-person work aren’t enough of an incentive. Now, workers across industries expect more when physically in the office.
The NAIOP Research Foundation, as part of its Industry Trends meeting, recently hosted a panel discussion on what’s next for the office sector. The panelists agreed that the sector will undergo a shakeout that will include transformation, streamlining, new approaches to work and holistic solutions.
“There’s a really exciting trend emerging in hiring and compensation that’s going to accelerate throughout 2023,” opened Chris Lee, CEO of CEL & Associates, during a recent NAIOP webinar. “It’s the blending together of the quantitative – the numbers, compensation and bonuses – and the qualitative – workplace environment and benefits.”
The global pandemic fundamentally changed how we work and our expectations of the office. Over a period of time, Gensler surveyed 2,000 U.S. workers as they were returning to the office to understand the new role of the office, what’s working and not, and what’s missing in the work experience.
Where will we see growth in 2023 for commercial real estate? Three trends to watch include initiatives to provide affordable housing, the reimagining of office and record demand for industrial real estate.
Read the full list of what captured the attention of industry professionals this year on Market Share, the official blog for commercial real estate.
“We cannot possibly talk about the overall economy without first discussing inflation,” opened Michael Seiler, DBA, during a NAIOP webinar this week. Seiler and Hany Guirguis, Ph.D., author the NAIOP Office Space Demand Forecast.
After the COVID-19 pandemic sent everyone home from the office and into the remote workplace, “there was a lot of
