The office rental business model changed as a result of Covid-19
El Financiero | October 21, 2021 |

This year the main office submarkets in the country together add more than 2.7 million square meters of empty space.

In addition to this, some of the former occupants have resorted to subletting their properties, a phenomenon that grew eight times at the end of the third quarter of this year, compared to the same period in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The market continues to adjust and companies with contracts still in force choose to sublet to occupy vacant spaces, once they make their adjustment to the hybrid model.

Now, some of the office and coworking developers offer their tenants flexible contracts, without established time and with the possibility of shortening or expanding the spaces.

"Most of the companies that are hiring flexible spaces today are in the world of technology, and are companies with up to a thousand employees, which perhaps had an office in CDMX and began to have employees distributed nationwide and also outside the country, ”said Gonzalo Aguero, CEO of Worknmates, an office reconversion platform.

Check here: All Access new work model powered by WeWork

The firm helps companies move towards flexible or hybrid spaces in IOS Offices, WeWork, Saach and Hemil centers, and put on the market up to 50 or 60 percent of corporate offices that companies stopped occupying since last year for the pandemic.

The main office owners in Mexico, as well as real estate brokerage analysts, estimate that the recovery in occupancy of traditional corporate buildings will occur towards the end of next year and even the most pessimistic foresee that this will occur in 2023.

Álvaro Rocafort, regional director of IWG, a global operator of flexible office brands such as Regus and Spaces, told El Financiero that from August to September of this year, traffic in their spaces grew 30 percent compared to previous months, however, He acknowledged that they have not yet recovered the occupation levels prior to the pandemic, for which he considered that the flexibility of the contracts will be key to achieving them.

He stressed that coworkings and flexible offices will be the big winners to meet the new demand from companies that migrate from their long lease contracts to tailor-made schemes.

Of interest: Without oversupply and with sustained demand, the Tijuana office market advances in its consolidation

Pablo López Gallardo, director of Analysis and Information of the real estate platform Solili, explained that in the third quarter of the year, CDMX, which concentrates 80 percent of the national market, had a slowdown in unemployment levels.

However, he warned that another major problem facing this market is the lack of new buildings, which will not start until occupancy and demand levels recover.

"We hope that it will be until 2022 when the projects begin to move or begin to move from construction to existing ones, that they are completed, most of the construction projects will be finalizing by 2022 and 2023," said López.

In Solili you can check offices available in Guadalajara, Tijuana, Monterrey and Querétaro

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