Several major employers from tech firms to banks have rolled out flexible working and signalled their intentions to reduce office space. Meanwhile, the growing focus on reducing carbon emissions has the potential to make a vast swathes of offices obsolete.

Exploring the current views on the future of offices in the UK, Sophy Moffat, head of research at Cluttons, discusses what the outlook of the UK office market is beginning to look like post-lockdown. Moffat said: “Businesses continue to see offices as attributes that can increase employees’ productivity and wellbeing and be a competitive advantage in the ‘war for talent’. Investors, too, are targeting opportunities to invest in central London offices. At the time of writing there is a bidding war for a one-acre, London Stock Exchange-owned plot in Shoreditch. Offers are reported to have spun from £120m to more than £150m - and bidders are betting on the future of the city’s office market.

“Momentum is, however, more difficult to find in the secondary office market. Around 3.5m sq ft of office space, much of which is small and concentrated in older buildings, has come on to the subletting market over the past year and, despite the offer of discounted rents, many buildings are failing to attract occupiers.”

Moffat concluded: “The availability rate in the London office market has increased to around 10% from around 7% in Q1 last year. And this could mean the ‘emptying out’ of secondary offices. Many of which will need to be refitted or repurposed.”