Hybrid work has officially taken over, and it’s making a huge impact on the office market. Recently Propmodo Research, in collaboration with video conferencing giant Zoom, took a deep dive into the challenges that hybrid work has placed on office layouts, particularly when it comes to designing hybrid-friendly conference rooms. Now that meetings often include at least one virtual participant, the design of the conference room and technology within it must be built in such a way that both in-person and virtual employees feel included and are equally engaged.
Our new post-COVID ways of working have also resulted in a change in office demand. A lot office space is likely to be eliminated due to hybrid work. With less people coming into the office throughout the week, occupiers are rethinking space layouts and space needs. There is more evidence of this in a recent survey conducted Colliers and CoreNet Global. According to the survey results, most corporate real estate professionals believe that the permanence of hybrid work will result in less demand for office space in 2023, paving the way for an increase in flex lease demand.
Out of the 500 corporate real estate professionals surveyed, 71 percent believe that hybrid work trends will cause office space demand to shrink by at least 20 percent, while 19 percent of respondents expect a space shrinkage of around 40 percent. Meanwhile, respondents also believe that the pervasiveness of hybrid work is altering corporate occupiers’ leasing strategies. Over half of the respondents believe that at least one-fifth of office leases will switch to flex leases within the next five years.