ifo | The amount of time full-time employees work from home in Germany has leveled off at an average of 1.4 days per week since the pandemic – compared to 1.3 days in neighboring France, 1.6 days in the US, and 1.1 days in Japan. This means that Covid-19 has had a severe and lasting effect on working conditions. That is the finding of a comparative study of 27 countries…
Jared Franz & Lisa Thompson ( Capital Group) | While the data is short term and the jury is still out, there are early signs of a powerful deurbanization trend in the United States and other major developed economies. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, migration from some big cities has accelerated while suburban home prices have soared. Moreover, national labor force surveys indicate an overwhelming majority of employees who have been working from home want to continue doing so one or more days per week.
Mark Callender (Schroeders) | Some real estate investors believe the successful working from home experiment during this crisis will lead to a long-term decline in demand for offices. We think this is premature. New technologies such as blockchain, robotic process automation and voice recognition probably pose a bigger threat to the office. However, the demand for offices in city centres and close to universities should continue to increase, driven by the growth in tech, life sciences and professional services.