Remember the optimism of the summer of 2021? That’s when many companies were planning a fall return to the office for their employees. Well, that optimism is gone, thanks to the Delta and Omicron variants.
And today? Most companies still aren’t sure when they’ll bring most of their workers back full-time to the office.
That’s the takeaway from the January National Office Report from CommercialEdge. According to the report, major companies such as Apple and Google are both delaying their plans to bring their workers back to the office. They’re joining companies across the country in waiting for a drop in the increased infections from the Omicron variant.
And when workers do return to the office? Most companies aren’t sure yet what that will look like. CommercialEdge cites the Workforce Sentiment Survey from CBRE that says that 85 percent of workers would like to work remotely at least two to three days a week. The same survey found that 87 percent of firms will adopt a hybrid work program of some kind.
In good news? CommercialEdge reported that across the top 50 U.S. office markets, listing rates for office space averaged $38.44 a foot in December of 2021. That’s up 1.8 percent on a year-over-year basis.
In the biggest market of the Midwest, Chicago, office listing rates averaged $28.19 a square foot in December of last year. The average office rent here, then, inched up just 0.9 percent when compared to the same month in 2020.
The office vacancy rate stood at 15.5 percent across the top 50 markets in the United States in December of last year, CommercialEdge reported. That’s a small jump of 130 basis points from December of 2020.
And the average sales price for office properties across the top 50 U.S. markets climbed to $293 a square foot in December of 2021.
What does the future hold? CommercialEdge reported that 156.6 million square feet of office space was under development by the end of 2021.
