I suspect this is going to have a pretty profound impact on the commercial real estate world. Aside from workers wanting to WFH, anecdotally I know of a few now cash-strapped start-ups that are very seriously considering breaking their leases and having much more of the work force WFH.
If you live in a city right now, just peer out at all of those sky scrapers. A huge amount of that is currently empty office space that costs a fortune. For many companies the idea that this space was truly optional was absurd, but right now companies everywhere are seeing that they have to be able to do 100% remote to survive.
Within a month an office space has gone from essential to being more and more of a luxury, way more expensive per employee than a automatic espresso machine.
I suspect a small but non-trivial number of companies will break their leases in the coming months. But far more companies will emerge from this crisis no longer believing that every employee needs a desk in an office.
If you live in a city right now, just peer out at all of those sky scrapers. A huge amount of that is currently empty office space that costs a fortune. For many companies the idea that this space was truly optional was absurd, but right now companies everywhere are seeing that they have to be able to do 100% remote to survive.
Within a month an office space has gone from essential to being more and more of a luxury, way more expensive per employee than a automatic espresso machine.
I suspect a small but non-trivial number of companies will break their leases in the coming months. But far more companies will emerge from this crisis no longer believing that every employee needs a desk in an office.