Priority for flexibility in the world of work!

Guest article by our CEO Dr. Tobias Wagner in the ImmobilienZeitung from June 4, 2020.

 

"For years, office demand exceeded supply in many places, and landlords set the rules. That should be over. The swath of devastation that Corona is leaving will leave its mark on the market. The rental market will relax and will probably become a tenant market. What will this look like? There is a dispute about the readjustment of the burdens. With all this uncertainty, many are likely to shy away from committing to rigid space requirements planning in the long term. Workspaces that are flexible in terms of time and space are needed. Flexibility is therefore becoming an essential criterion.

Working from home is a winner. The home office principle has been massively expanded out of necessity - and it works. It has passed the involuntary stress test. While comparatively few people in Germany worked from home before the Corona crisis, now every second person does. This is a learning experience for everyone who considered being present at headquarters and being personally present when working together to be essential.

However, the need to work from home and remotely has also shown the lack of digital maturity of companies. Weak points have become clearly visible: overloaded networks, old IT infrastructures, missing tools, analogue cultures. Companies must therefore invest heavily in modern IT.

The coworking providers, who have recently aggressively stocked up on expensive long-term rental contracts, are only benefiting to a limited extent in a price-sensitive tenant market, despite demand for flexibility. Some flex office providers are unlikely to be able to recoup their costs with cheaper space alternatives. In addition, the open space that dominates many coworking operators, with closely spaced desks and inevitably numerous contacts with third parties, is viewed critically in light of the pandemic experience.

Winners, in turn, could be new coworking and business center operators and sharing platforms entering the market at lower space costs. Sharing in the office market, which is dominated by a traditional offer with rigid, long-term rental contracts, is still young and little known. The sharing economy - the shared, temporary use of a resource - is likely to gain a boost. Office sharing platforms connect space owners and buyers based on the Airbnb principle with a focus on flexibility. Digitalization and more flexible working methods are contributing to sharing. Sharing is likely to gain in importance, not least due to the argument of additional income and lower space costs."