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Polster speculates on a shift to quality as the function of offices changes. People will still need to go to the office, for example to receive training and meet with their colleagues. But they will spend less time there, and offices may be smaller. As a result, says Polster, “We expect a shift towards quality for both
in need of more space to accommodate more workers under socially distanced conditions.
Paul Hallam, managing partner, GalCap Europe, gives the example of a building in his portfolio given over wholly to labs and pharma companies. “If we could
recruitment of digital talent,” says Polster. “There are a lot of opportunities for [the] real estate sector, [especially]
in CEE, which still a region with [significant] growth in white collar employment. But developers to have
to be more careful about where they locate their product, what they offer for increasingly mobile and location- agnostic employees and employers.”
There is some debate at the moment about whether we are seeing a permanent departure from offices, that will leave city centres bereft, or if people will be back once a vaccine has been discovered and rolled out.
Polster says it will be difficult to bring people back, and success in doing so will depend on what the city and the individual development has to offer. He says urban centres remain attractive, including some regional cities – but
this depends on the quality of life they offer. By contrast, he adds, “places and buildings designed and operated as nine to five workplace are really at risk”.
“Tech employment is exploding further and there is still a massive push for recruitment of digital talent”
the building and its location ... the core hub might need less square meterage and that could be traded off for a higher quality environment or building. The trend was already there but now it is accelerating.”
Office space providers can also take comfort from the fact that some sectors, notably tech and pharma, are expanding rapidly in CEE, and are thus
replicate that we would, as there are virtually no issues at all, aside from the standard requests for additional cleaning. They are all taking their own measures anyway. As tenants they are ideal, and this helps offset problems in buildings heavy on gastronomy.”
The tech sector is still going strong too. “Tech employment is exploding further and there is still a massive push for
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