Commercial real estate professionals foresee a future where flexibility in the workplace is valued above almost anything else, according to a new report from the Urban Land Institute, the Future of Work. ULI surveyed 555 real estate professionals, including investors, developers, architects, and planners all over the world, and they focused on forecasts for the next 3-5 years.
Before COVID-19, about 20% of employees worked remotely 20% of the time or more. But the majority of respondents to this survey said that in the future, they expect that about 60% of employees around the world will be spending more than 40% of their time working remotely.
More than half of the respondents expect their own organizations to need less office space, 96% expect overall demand to increase for flexible office footprints, and 66% expect overall demand to increase for flexible leases.
Despite this, there is still some good news in the report for those of us who love being in the office with our coworkers: 96% of respondents “continue to see a key role for physical office space in creating a corporate culture.”
As workers demand more flexibility, which allows people to pursue housing options outside city centers, this may have an enormous impact on affordable housing needs and development opportunities both in cities and outside them.
So it’s essential for developers, investors, planners, community leaders, and other real estate professionals to not only think about the immediate impacts of the pandemic, but also about the longer-term effects on affordable housing and commercial real estate.
Read the “Future of Work: A Global Real Estate Player’s Point of View,” from the Urban Land Institute here.