COVID & the UK Office Sector: Initial Impacts and Emerging Trends

Abstract

This paper assesses the extent to which ‘20 years of change in 20 days’ purportedly produced by the COVID pandemic has affected and will continue to affect the occupation and use of office space. The pandemic has the potential to lead to some transformative impacts on the operating models and, perhaps to a lesser extent, the financial performance of many office occupiers. Many commentators consider that changes in business strategy and operating models in conjunction with an evolving, more challenging business environment will accelerate ongoing structural change. Such change is expected to have a range of varying impacts on both the level and pattern of demand for office space, the operation of office space and occupiers in office space in the short, medium and long terms. Drawing upon interviews with senior corporate real estate managers in global businesses, this paper reports on the initial findings of a research project exploring the experiences and responses of a range of major UK office occupiers to the crisis. To uncover and understand impacts and processes of change over time, the methodological approach consists of qualitative, longitudinal research. The research examines a range of issues including pre-pandemic workplace practices and strategies; the transition to home-working during the pandemic; perceptions of business performance during the pandemic and expectations regarding post-pandemic working patterns.