Office market could be COVID-19 casualty

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently informed employees that they will be allowed to work from home permanently, even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

The move may be a harbinger of a new corporate mindset resulting from the pandemic. It doesn’t bode well for the commercial office market, some observers say.

The new normal for office space could become virtual, with companies retaining just a scaled-down home base dedicated to important meetings with clients and recruits. Prior to the pandemic, leased or company-owned offices may have been iconic buildings that bolstered the brand and prominence in the areas they occupied.  

After the pandemic, office space may be viewed as an expensive budget line item that could be trimmed with little impact on operations. Many businesses, even those requiring high data security such as financial services firms, have made necessary investments in virtual infrastructure during the virus lockdown. The result has been a true distributed workforce that in some cases has been more productive.