A survey carried out by professional services firm EY Romania among 40 owners of office buildings shows that 75% of them kept their current rent prices despite negotiations with tenants, while the rest lowered prices.
This could mean that most owners of offices believe that employees will gradually return to the office buildings and the remote work arrangements are not here to stay for the long term.
On the other hand, companies that leased office space wanted to reduce their rent costs in order to cover the additional investments in equipment for remote workers.
“However, returning to the office during a pandemic and changing employee expectations may represent the end of the office as we have known it until now and will bring many challenges for both office space owners and tenant companies with many employees,” said Roxana Dudău, Partner Băncilă, Diaconu și Asociații and Coordinator of the Real Estate Practice.
More than half of the surveyed owners have received requests to reconfigure their open space plans in view of the health risks. Investments in redesigning workspaces amounted to more than €30 per sqm.
