The office never died, and it is getting ready to “go back to normal”, according to experts that participated in a recent call organized by Trepp.
Experts agreed that by January 2022, office utilization would be back to normal. However, they did note that metrics of square feet per employee will change, as pre-COVID ones do not compute with post-pandemic requirements and comfort.
As workers return to the office, they will see more distance between workstations. “We likely won’t see a return to the far side of densification within an office space,” one of the analysts argued during the call.
The return to the office will be mostly driven by younger workers that don’t have enough space at home to set up a home office or work in comfort. An analyst argued that moving forward, offices will increasingly embrace “we” vs “me” models.
