Will working from home sound the death knell for offices?
While remote working has been successful, it may be premature to assume that it will still be the case once the pandemic is brought under control.
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ONE key aspect of the coronavirus pandemic has been the sudden evacuation of offices and mass adoption of home working. As a result, some real estate investors believe the working from home experiment that's taken place during this crisis will lead to a long-term decline in demand for offices.
In the United States, it is estimated that as many as 40 to 50 per cent of people are now working mainly from home. In 2019, this figure was just 5 per cent. The shift has taken place across the world, as governments have asked people to stay indoors.
Millions of people are now working on their kitchen table or sofa, using e-mail and conference calls to communicate with colleagues and clients. The use of video-conferencing services such as Microsoft Teams, or Zoom has skyrocketed. The simultaneous collapse in air travel has meant that in May, the market capitalisation of Zoom - which only started in 2012 - passed that of the world's seven biggest airlines combined.
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