Since the Covid-19 pandemic the location of an office-based workforce has changed dramatically. On the 23rd March 2019, the hustle and bustle synonymous with a busy morning in London was absent, as for the first time for a period lasting until today, many people ‘clocked in’ from their homes.  A year and a half later In November 2020, a report by Space Three Two found that over 70% of all office rent paid by business in the capital would be spent on unoccupied desks and unmoving chairs. The total rent of London business post pandemic was estimated to be £12.84 billion. More bad news came for the destitute desks, as a survey found that London based staff wanted to spend only 2.7 days in the office once the restrictions were fully lifted.

What does the ‘working from home’ landscape look like now, 41 months later from the first day of the first lockdown?

The Guardian reported that vacant space in London today is still up 50%. A pretty small reduction on the 70% vacancy rate reported just under two years ago. It works out at 2.88 million square metres, equivalent to just over 403 football pitches. There has never been this much empty space sitting, gathering dust, in our Capital. The last time there was anything near this, was after the 2008 financial crisis, where unoccupied offices clocked in at 2.6 million square metres

How are companies luring their employees back to the office?

Two words: ‘Showcase Spaces’. Google’s new King’s Cross building, due to be completed in 2024, is a 92’000 metre building aiming to accommodate 4000 employees when finished. However, it is not the postcode attraction luring the ‘Googlers’ back to the office, it’s the sports hall overlooking the sights of the City, the 25 metre long swimming pool as well as the rooftop running track, half the size of an Olympic one. Google attempts to entice the ‘work from homers’ back to the office with an email offering them a walk through their rooftop garden featuring 250 trees, where the sights of the Shard plays hide and seek amongst the canopy. The email lands at the desk of an overworked employee, sitting swamped at their kitchen table in their cramped London flat, that they share with the children, their partner and their very noisy next door neighbour. That same employee has never raced to work quicker.

Or so the theory goes…

Please do contact the commercial property team on 01206 835316 or via [email protected] for further information.