Remote working: a shake-up in office real estate

The real estate market is made up of two main segments: the residential market, which provides housing for households, and the commercial market, which provides office space for companies.

During the covid period, remote working became the norm, and since then it has become a regular practice embraced by most employees. In France, remote working reached 41% of employees in 2020, and today it still concerns more than 25% of employees. This structural change can lead to major disruptions, particularly in terms of work organization. Remote working has created a negative demand shock for commercial real estate, as the vacancy rate for commercial premises has exploded.

A recent study by the Banque de France indicates that a sustainable trend in the conversion of office space into residential accommodation could be underway. And this trend is confirmedm in a multitude of countries. While co-working spaces continue to grow rapidly since the end of the health crisis, and the flexible office trend is gaining momentum, this new tendency in office transformation is taking hold.

Bouygues, one of the world’s largest construction companies, has announced the creation of its subsidiary, Coverso, which will be entirely dedicated to the conversion of office space into housing.

In addition, builders are now thinking about new reversible buildings, which can easily be converted from residential to office space and vice versa.

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