The changes in the consumption pattern of the applicant for corporate spaces, is a phenomenon that was already beginning to manifest itself before the pandemic and later became more acute, creating the conditions for the reconversion of office spaces, in the search to resume the monetization of the active.

Cases such as Germany, where they already define how to dispose of their more than 350 thousand unoccupied square meters, because they anticipate that for each percentage point of disused surface, about 50 thousand square meters of homes with 70 square meters per unit could be enabled. This option will simultaneously help two problems: the shortage of residential supply that is around 74,000 homes in Berlin and closing the gap in the vacancy of corporate spaces.

In countries such as the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands, administrative authorities participate in the process by granting advantages when it comes to buildings whose functional obsolescence is already evident.

We recommend: The new Hub + Spoke model is developed in offices

Spain, for example, had already shown successful restructuring of vacant offices since 2019 to hotels that rescued the generation of value in these investments.

Other alternatives emerged as a result of the situation, such as the Hub & Spoke format, which originates from the model of airport concentration points that seek to reduce and optimize communication routes. At the corporate level, they applied this idea to create temporary meetinghouses in remote locations for individual work.

This format is opposed to the idea of a single headquarters as a nucleus or central meeting point, supported by the search for conditioned spaces close to the residence area of each employee, which would cover the disadvantages that the home office may generate as there are not enough adaptations in homes to work.

Mexico has innovative commercial alternatives such as Around that manages to occupy vacant spaces without being considered a sublease, since it contemplates the provision of a service that includes Wi-Fi, furniture, cleaning and coffee; where the capacity is measured by jobs and the locations are diverse including the main capitals of the country.

It may interest you: New ways of trading vacant office spaces are emerging

All these models coexist with traditional corporate coworking, where the capacity for multiple users and communities has been expanded, who see their best advantage in synergy.

The saturation of corporate buildings without reaching 100% occupancy in the medium term, forces the reconversion of uses to be a mandatory path to explore in the face of the risks that a vacant property would generate.

Each case is very particular and the characteristics of the property together with the final or alternative use that its location could originate, are the starting point for developers to generate new ideas focused on a market demand in full evolution.

To read: Office vacancy is higher due to the demand for spaces