Moreover, whereas leases used to be signed for five, seven or ten years, from now on, the terms will be shorter to allow for a greater flexibility. This will directly affect the price of buildings considering the rental period is a significant factor when calculating it.
“We expect shorter-term leases,” said Tim Wilkson, Partner Capital Markets with real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield Echinox .
They are already shorter in the West. We are headed towards a time with many clauses to suspend the contract, with greater flexibility and shorter terms. We also expect the co-working spaces to have a say because teams will be divided and flexibility will be important, he added.
On the other hand, some expect a complete transformation of office space as the number of those working from home or from co-working spaces increases.
“We will be talking ‘work from everywhere”, not necessarily from home, because flexibility will be the keyword. Offices will be centers of experience, labs for those in research and development or dedicated spaces,” says Corina Lascu, Engagement & Business Operations Director with technology company RINF TECH.
Flexibility, work from home and in a co-working space have already been discussed for a number of years now, but the shift was sudden from one or two days a week to full-time working from home in the past six weeks.
“This is a trend that will continue, flexibility is a factor that led to the success of those with co-working spaces. On the other hand, developers have limited flexibility due to their type of funding. Both developers and those providing the funding will have to be more flexible in the future to adjust to the current trends” said Mihai Zaharia, head of investments and capital markets with Globalworth, the largest office space owner in Romania and Poland.
Work on the projects under construction continues, especially if the developers have leases signed for them.
“The projects under construction will continue and be delivered. On the other hand, with the future projects that have not started construction yet, we will see a difference between those who have the equity and can start and the rest. We will see the effects in the coming period because the projects that should have started in the second half of 2020 or in 2021 will be delayed by at least three months,” said Aurelia Luca, Executive Vice President Operations Romania, Skanska Commercial Development Europe.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)