“When businesses return to a post-COVID world, their employees will on average work remotely more than one and a half days a week.”
CBRE SURVEY
A recent Los Angeles Times article noted that office leasing in Los Angeles County was showing positive signs in the third quarter as some employers looked ahead and rented space. This seems to be a leap of faith for those companies as many workers have still not returned to the office and most office buildings remain sparsely occupied. After talking to clients and performing surveys, Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE), a commercial real estate services and investment firm, calculates that when businesses return to a post-COVID world their employees will on average work remotely more than one and a half days a week nationwide. Some employers, particularly entertainment and tech companies in the Los Angeles area, have continued to expand. Others such as Aquent, have markedly reduced their offices as remote work proved feasible during the pandemic. The article notes that by tracking daily foot traffic estimates, CBRE recently found office visitor volume in Los Angeles down 68% from early March 2020, before the pandemic exodus. San Francisco office visitation was down about 74%, and Boston was the least affected among cities tracked with traffic down 57% from before the pandemic. Landlords may not be lowering rents but they are offering incentives such as offering tenants generous allowances to build out their offices and periods of free rent in exchange for signing leases.
