Since the onset of the pandemic, teleworking has proved for many companies a solution to an immediate problem and an alternative for the future. Many of them have already accepted that this is an inevitable change in the way they work and have fully adopted it: according to the Dataprot portal, 16% of companies in the world operate in a teleworking regime. This option, however, is more common in cities with a high standard of living as there are some essentials for telecommuting, such as adequate space in the house, a good internet connection or a computer and optimal equipment. For this reason, it is in large cities like New York y Londonwhere the following problem is noted: the sharp increase in empty offices.
The universities of Columbia and New York published a study that indicated that, due to the low demand caused by telework, an estimated reduction of 28% in the value of offices – a total of 456 billion dollars less. The analysis also indicated that 10% of this reduction would only occur in New York.
In fact, there is an office area in Manhattan, located between 42nd and 59th streets of Third Avenue, with 29% vacancies, doubling the 2018 rate and exceeding the total figure for the city, located at 19%. , according to a Savills study cited by Forbes. The solution could be to convert these offices into apartments, as is being done in other cities, which would help mitigate the housing problem in the city: rent in Manhattan currently reaches $ 5,000 a month.
Unusual panorama in the British capital
On the other hand, in London you face the same problem. In 15 years, there haven’t been that many empty offices, and the percentage of them has increased by more than 50% since late 2019, according to CoStar data cited by Bloomberg. All this resulted in a reduction in the value of the offices by 25% and a difficult situation for the owners.
However, there are organizations such as The Utilize Project that propose to convert these spaces into places of community use, with the aim of improving coexistence between neighbors. Others, such as Save The High Street, seek to encourage collaboration between owners and professionals to occupy the currently empty offices.
The London City Government has also proposed a plan to transform vacant offices in the historic city into 1,500 new residences by 2030. Government member Alastair Moss added that there is no doubt that the pandemic has changed some “forms of work and accelerated “. positive trends “, indicating that the city is trying to adapt to new times.
Future, with F for Flexibility
In 2021, the Buffer portal published a study on telework in which 32% of respondents indicated that being able to have flexible hours was the greatest advantage of working from home. In other words, flexibility is the most appreciated element by teleworkers, as it allows them to better reconcile work and professional life.
It is therefore a natural evolution of the way of working linked to technological development, also supported by data: according to a study by Stanford University cited by LinkedIn and conducted on a sample of 16,000 workers, its productivity increased by 13% during the telework regime compared to the face-to-face model.
