Three years ago, much of the world was in lockdown and the ‘great remote working experiment’ had begun. Today, firms continue to announce permanent remote/hybrid work policies and most experts agree that the global pandemic dramatically accelerated the evolution of work. This rapid shift has caused a steep decline in the demand for physical office space, which has raised concerns about the future of commercial real estate (CRE) markets. A real estate crisis is developing and, in order to survive, building owners will need to get smart to repurpose and differentiate their properties or risk them becoming stranded assets. Physical office occupancy in the US office market fell from 95% at the end of February 2020 to 10% at the end of March 2020 and it had only just crept back to 47% by November 2022. The situation is similar in developed office markets around the world, and the typical concentration of offices in urban […]