Over the past year, Colliers Real Estate Management Services has published a series of reports to provide our clients with unique insights on the recovery of office, retail, and industrial assets.
The Great Experiment – Dawn of the Hybrid Era is the fourth installment in our series on office recovery and a direct follow-up to The Great Experiment released in May 2021. To analyze our portfolio, we surveyed a diverse array of tenants across our 31 million square foot national office portfolio.
Key takeaways:
- By Q1 of 2022, approximately 85% of companies surveyed nationally will have their employees working in the office in some capacity.
- The impact of hybrid work, as an isolated variable, is predicted to increase the national office vacancy rate by approximately 5% by 2024, from current levels. This is on track for a total impact on overall vacancy, as a result of hybrid work alone, of close to +8.5% by 2024, as forecasted by Colliers REMS in June 2020.
- Tenants are now considering that flexible office space will make up approximately 7% of their future total office space needs, up from 6%reported by Colliers REMS in May 2021.
- For organizations returning under a hybrid model of work, the calculation of average square foot of office space per employee is expected to decline by 7%, from 280 SF to 260 SF per employee.
- Building managers and owners can help to ease and possibly accelerate the transition by 1) increasing transparency around health and wellness protocols and 2) finding creative and more flexible solutions for parking.
