Could this be the end of hotdesking, chill outzones and handsets? After recent government guidance workplaces must ensure a 2 metre distance between workers.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, May 13, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Office will never be the same again.

Free craft beer and chill-out zones on hold as the pandemic forces a 96% drop in office lettings.

Offices of the future will need to be flexible and safety conscious to meet new demands generated by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The trendy free bars and communal areas of Coworking space will be replaced by more structured environments with a strict hand washing policy in place as well as activity time involved made to be as short as possible.
Official guidance has banned hotdesking with fixed desks to be used instead, using a mandatory 2 metre distance between workers where possible.

“Office space will never be the same again,” says Nick Riesel, managing director of FreeOfficeFinder.com, a national property agent marketing 2,500 office locations. “The pandemic has caused a complete rethink in workspace strategy, which has led to an inevitable drop in enquiries, but activity is picking up as companies plan for the future."

The agency’s survey of 200 providers found that lettings have dropped 96% from April 2019 to April 2020 while it has recorded a 36% increase in enquiries from firms wanting to move from leasehold offices into a serviced office or flexspace solution when restrictions are lifted.

“There will be a downturn in small companies committing to long term office leases as flexible workspace becomes the standard model,” added Mr Riesel, whose company’s clients have included Dragon’s Den businessman James Caan, the Royal British Legion and Amnesty International.

“This is a revolution in office space with many start-ups likely to stay trading at home for longer while a number of large corporates will close or down-size their headquarters in favour of satellite offices. Office space that provides the flexibility to upsize or downsize at short notice will undoubtably increase in demand."

Offices will be required to perform more regular and stringent cleaning while phone handsets could disappear, with technology directing calls to computers or individual mobile phones.

“These are tough times and there will be some seismic changes but the sector will bounce back as we re-emerge from pandemic restrictions” added Mr Riesel.


Survey key points:

1. 96% decrease in office lettings from April 2019 to April 2020 (200 providers surveyed)

2. Available office space increased from March 2020 to April 2020 by 13%

3. Enquiries for office space are either key workers or firms waiting for the lockdown to end

4. 36% increase in companies based in leased offices looking to switch to serviced offices/flexspace

5. Coworking could survive if operators change shared desk space to fixed desk space


END

About FreeOfficeFinder.com

FreeOfficeFinder.com is an agency for office space, based in Farringdon, London.
Founded in 2002, the company currently markets over 2500 office buildings in the UK for
100’s of office providers including WeWork, Regus and The Office Group.

For all media enquiries, please contact: mark@tm-media.co.uk 07710 740 468 / alice@tm-media.co.uk

Alice Brown
email us here
TM Media
+44 7596 682294

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.