Nuveen recently published a report on the experiences of commercial real estate during the global pandemic and offered their near to medium-term outlook for the industry.
When it comes to impacts on the office sector, Nuveen comment how the trend of densification had taken hold pre-pandemic. Figures show that in recent years average space allocated per employee had shrank from 250-300 sq ft to as low as 100-120 sq ft. Nuveen suspect, therefore, that this trend will come to an end and that many companies (during the process of planning how to adapt their work environment) will allow for more space per worker in the future. They believe this will mitigate any decrease in demand for office space brought about by work-from-home arrangements.