Research articles

With the end of the school and summer holidays behind us, there are increased signs of the UK flex market returning to some degree of normality. Business confidence is returning, but the desire for ongoing flexibility remains high, as reflected in the continued rise in contractual occupancy within flexible office space.

Instant established the Agile CRE ThinkTank (ACT) in March 2020 to explore and develop best practices around Productivity, Health & Safety and Real Estate in the face of the global pandemic. Over the last 6 months we have interviewed over 35 senior Real Estate, Facilities & HR professionals globally about their return to office plans.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, those both inside and outside the industry have often predicted that the agility inherent in the flexible workspace industry would result in buildings emptying and many operators going out of business. In our previous review of how occupancy rates in the UK had been impacted by the pandemic in November last year, we reported that occupancy rates had indeed fallen, but not by anywhere near the levels that had been predicted. Now, 6 months on, we take a look at how this trend is changing as restrictions are lifted and employees start to return to the office.

Instant's John Williams and James Rankin, alongside special guest Gareth Lewis, Real Estate M&A Director at PwC, discuss the idea of the 'Lifestyle Office', and whether this is feasible in a post-covid world.

The Covid-19 pandemic has driven corporations to rightsize their commercial real estate portfolios, and along with it has come an occasion for a marked shift in real estate's sustainability impact. It has opened a remarkable opportunity to educate occupiers and investors and impact long-term sustainability performance, both within the office environment and at home, while supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy.

While some companies have committed to remote work for the long haul, many others are in a place to rethink office space planning and their commercial real estate needs. Here's what you should be looking at now.

Why is there so much more choice in flexible workspace and what value does this represent to your business?

While the retail landscape has experienced a dramatic evolution over the past two decades, commercial real estate, particularly office space, has been notoriously slow to adapt — that was, until March 2020....