Close to 24% of respondents have not decided whether to adapt office space to the new normal, down by six percentage points on the June 2021 survey.
Just under 32% of office tenants said that they had not made and would not make any changes. This may be due to the phase of their lease term or the lack of office improvement contributions routinely provided by landlords in the past. Tenants’ investment plans are also likely to be hampered by high office fit-out costs which have been steadily rising since the beginning of 2022.
“The proportion of surveyed companies that have not made decisions regarding office space reconfiguration remains high at 24%. They are largely tenants who do not want to spend on office refitting. They would rather wait for their leases to expire and secure an office in a new location that would better meet their needs,”
- comments Mariola Bitner, Head of Workplace Strategy Poland, Cushman & Wakefield.
“The pandemic period saw mainly office reconfiguration out of concern for employee safety and completion of pre-planned projects. Fit-out projects tend to be planned well in advance and may take two years to complete, depending on their complexity and whether we negotiate a lease in a new location or in the current one. Our clients are beginning to develop or have already developed hybrid working strategies and are implementing new space arrangement solutions and clear rules and policies which are necessary to maintain the expected employee productivity and to achieve other corporate goals of work culture, collaboration and knowledge sharing. Defining such a strategy also takes time and is required to continue to operate without a risk of increased employee turnover which has a huge impact on a company’s operational performance and financial standing. The consequences of the pandemic will be felt for years to come and will affect project turnaround times and fit-out costs that have recently increased significantly. Companies can no longer afford sophisticated fit-outs that were within their reach just a year ago. As a result, they economize and reuse furniture and solutions in place as much as possible. The positive effect of these changes is less production of new fit-out items that would otherwise result from ongoing projects, which is good for the environment. The trend of furniture reuse emerged several years ago and was driven by environmental care. Today, both the financial aspect and delivery times impact decisions regarding new solutions in equal measure,”
- adds Mariola Bitner, Head of Workplace Strategy Poland, Cushman & Wakefield.
