The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way Americans work, and many aren't going back to the way things were. A new Pew Research survey finds the majority of Americans still working from home are doing so by choice, not requirement. Another recent study reveals most workers would be willing to take a pay cut to work from home permanently. Those who are returning to the office are finding a different environment, with many companies downsizing and modernizing workspaces.
While many businesses have abandoned traditional offices or are downsizing them to fit the post-pandemic workforce, there is still a demand for physical space. Robert Kramp, Vice President of Research for Transwestern Real Estate in Houston, says offices aren't going away, just taking on a different form. "Who's to say we wouldn't have another situation in the future, God forbid, where we have an airborne disease," he asks. "(Businesses) will want the ability to shut off certain office space, or have built-in social distancing."
Kramp predicts some of the office innovations will actually result in upsizing, rather than downsizing. "More people are going to want more space and more walls and doors," he tells KTRH. "So the social distancing element is what we see, in terms of demand for office space, actually expanding."
In the meantime, you can expect to see plenty of half-empty offices and commercial buildings around town. But Kramp notes that is nothing new. "I've been tracking the Houston office market since the early 1990s, and we have always had consistent, double digit vacancy rates," he says. "And we will continue to have high availability rates until a lot of the older spaces are retired, or even demolished and made way for other best uses of that land and location."
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