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The physical office in a hybrid world

Why changing occupier demand means investment opportunity

Hybrid working, where white-collar employees divide their working week between home and the office, is now the default for Australian companies. This trend was in motion prior to the pandemic, but has been accelerated and solidified by it, establishing it as the norm.

With employees in the office fewer days per week, the role of the office has changed. In parallel, other structural themes are shifting occupier expectations about their offices faster than the market can adapt. These themes include the environment and the need for offices to help mitigate the climate crisis; demographics with a new group of gen-Z employees born since 1997 coming of age; and technology changing the type of work that is done and where it is undertaken (Figure 1). For informed investors who act with conviction, filling the supply gap by providing office space suitable for modern occupation brings performance opportunity.

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