A survey by BNP Paribas Real Estate
The COVID-19 virus, which struck the world at the end of 2019, is a rare occurrence that affected the office market the past few months. Countries, economies, and populations had to shut down. Our offices were deserted, bars and restaurants closed and streets left abandoned as people retreated indoors, to ride out the lockdown period.
In this survey, we wanted to interview the occupiers of buildings managed by our property management teams in order to have a better understanding of the impact the crisis has had on their organizations and on the way they had to rethink the future of work.
While many people were already promoting the virtues of remote working long before the crisis, others questioned its effectiveness. As the Covid-19 unfolded, companies and their employees had to adapt quickly, with no time for a trial, facing a range of difficulties in order to set up remote working for the majority.
Amid concerns that remote working could reduce the efficiency of some workflows and lead to a loss in creative potential, we questioned occupiers to have their opinion on what solutions they implemented to ensure business continuity, on what they thought were the key incentives to motivate their employees to return to work on the premises,…
In the meantime, we gave the opportunity to our occupiers to share with us their attitude towards their real estate projects and the workplace. While we could have expected a considerable slowdown in activity or even a change of plan regarding their real estate projects, the results of the survey tend to give a more nuanced vision.
