The Path to the Post-Covid City

Specific to office space, the consensus is the asset-class will shrink, but not disappear, instead acting as hubs of exchange. Workers will come in once or twice a week meaning downsized offices and more resort/country home meeting locations. Cities would become cleaner with reduced carbon emissions, rents will fall, and office buildings in subprime locations will be converted into homes like old factories becoming lofts in the 1980s. While requiring denser distribution of fittings like plumbing and stairs, converting is “entirely feasible” and greener than demolishing and rebuilding. Winners will be liberated corporate tenants, workers, and the planet while commercial property and their lending banks should consider how to align with current economic and real estate as well as sustainability preferences of the market.