Office Market Discussion

[casper]

Originally Posted by rofina

A lot of people cant work from home due to space restrictions, and a lot of people rather work from an office.

A lot of professions also need office space, lawyers, accountants, etc.

Sure, maybe tech changes their uptake. But tech really only became a player in the last decade anyway.

I think it is the other way around. There are lots of accountants and lawyers working form home. Many of them doing it from years.

These large tech companies put a strong emphasis on white boarding, collaboration and most tasks are tackled by teams. That drives up the need for meeting space. What I think we are likely to see is the end of individual desks, with a lot of people working from home and the option to come in to the office to use a hot desk or participate in a meeting.

[officedweller]

At our law firm work loads are way down.
They laid off 25 staff (non-lawyers) and cut pay 20% for the rest of the staff.

[casper]

Originally Posted by officedweller

At our law firm work loads are way down.
They laid off 25 staff (non-lawyers) and cut pay 20% for the rest of the staff.

That is not good for the economy. If lawyers are not busy that means the amount of deals making must be down.

[s211]

Originally Posted by officedweller

At our law firm work loads are way down.
They laid off 25 staff (non-lawyers) and cut pay 20% for the rest of the staff.

To clarify, are you saying that the lawyers have dropped their hourly rates by 20%? If so, that's the first time I've ever heard of that kind of thing happening.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by libtard

You really want to believe that don’t you? Does the thought of public transit and office tower construction on the decline terrify you?

Its just an immutable fact; bad things are blips in the chain of history. See the footage of Memorial Day Weekend down in the USA? Irresponsible as anything, but people are over the pandemic. Give it a year or two and some actual medication.

Terrify me personally? No, not at all. My future is not in the City.

But I would like another decade or so of stability to pad my bank account a little more for that flexibility.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by s211

To clarify, are you saying that the lawyers have dropped their hourly rates by 20%? If so, that's the first time I've ever heard of that kind of thing happening.

No, salaried staff (legal assistants, copyroom, etc) had wages cut.
Lawyers are not staff.

[s211]

Originally Posted by officedweller

No, salaried staff (legal assistants, copyroom, etc) had wages cut.
Lawyers are not staff.

Ah, and ouch.

[Sheba]

More Downtown Vancouver sub-lease office space is coming available

Companies are putting more downtown office space they no longer need onto the sub-lease market, hoping to rent it out to another company, in numbers that are surging.

The uptick comes as the COVID-19 pandemic changes commercial real estate trends, with companies scaling back and employees continuing to work remotely.

The office space available for sublet in downtown Vancouver had already doubled, from about 130,000 square feet at the end of the first quarter to over 260,000 square feet when broker Ross Moore recently cited it as a mini-milestone.

Moore now says the available sublet space has gone up again, rising to around 370,000 square feet in just a week.

“Boy, have the (numbers) changed,” he said. “I am literally in a state of shock.”

Moore is a managing broker at real estate company Cresa who has worked on leases for companies in Vancouver for almost 30 years, and has seen four economic downturns.

He said the 10-year average for available sublease space is around 214,000 square feet, meaning what was available at the end of March — about 130,000 square feet — was lower than usual.

“We haven’t doubled the 10-year-average (now),” he said. “But we’re getting close.”

When he first commented on the trend, he marvelled at how quickly some companies were trying to rent out their leased space.

“What is remarkable this time is the speed,” said Moore. “I’ve spoken to a lot of other brokers and landlords and none of us have ever seen anything like this before, not that fast.”

He said that with record-low vacancy rates at between two and three per cent, “it’s so tight, people are thinking, ‘I stand a pretty good chance of getting rid of the space,'” compared to in past downturns when there was a recession.

But there is not much take up this time around for companies hoping to sublease their downtown office space, even though there are some inquiries, said Moore.

...

[officedweller]

A friend of mine who works at EA said they will be working remotely until January!

[s211]

Originally Posted by officedweller

A friend of mine who works at EA said they will be working remotely until January!

The paranoia in many office circles is quite boggling. So much fear out there. Many firms not ramping up office operations until September now. It's like an early start to the summer vacation months.

No slowing down where I work. We're already doing 60+ hours a week, easy. And we're getting back into our offices, almost all missing the personal interactions and increased productivity.

[libtard]

Originally Posted by Sheba

More Downtown Vancouver sub-lease office space is coming available

But according to skyscraper page this shouldn’t be happening

[stump]

Originally Posted by s211

The paranoia in many office circles is quite boggling. So much fear out there. Many firms not ramping up office operations until September now. It's like an early start to the summer vacation months.

No slowing down where I work. We're already doing 60+ hours a week, easy. And we're getting back into our offices, almost all missing the personal interactions and increased productivity.

We just opened our office last week for people that want to come into the office voluntarily but only 20 people showed up out of 150 or so.

Definitely looks like an early summer for us as well and working from home has gone pretty smoothly so not many people are eager to come in if they don't need to.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by libtard

But according to skyscraper page this shouldn’t be happening

Citation needed.

[jlousa]

Our real estate dept is acutally looking for additional space now that so much is popping up at a discount on the sublease market. They are grabbing some on a temp basis in order to provide more spacing for employees to provide ease of mind. Once the paranoia dies down we'll contract back to our normal sqftage.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by s211

The paranoia in many office circles is quite boggling. So much fear out there. Many firms not ramping up office operations until September now. It's like an early start to the summer vacation months.

No slowing down where I work. We're already doing 60+ hours a week, easy. And we're getting back into our offices, almost all missing the personal interactions and increased productivity.

This.

Things are ramping up for us - and most people want to be out of the house. Lots of measures around the office with screens, etc, but other than that people are generally amped to get back to normal.

For many people working from home is a pipe dream. They like to blame their job on not being able to do it more often, but I see the amount of people struggling to make it through Covid.

Kids, dogs, distractions, etc. Many people have taken advantage of coming in soon as possible.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by rofina

Kids, dogs, distractions, etc. Many people have taken advantage of coming in soon as possible.

And there's the social aspect of office work that is a definite positive to your mental health. Being isolated all day can get rough when it's weeks or months on end.

[libtard]

I guess my anecdotal evidence cancels yours out? My office opened up 30 spots for people to come back to work if they chose. 1 person showed up. The other 29 prefer working from home. I guess we’ll just have to go by facts and actual trends pointing to an increase in telecommuting and a decrease in office space demand

[Klazu]

I heard from a friend that Shopify may not be building as big of an office presence as quickly as they were thinking earlier due to the COVID situation and working from home boom. Interesting if true.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by libtard

I guess my anecdotal evidence cancels yours out? My office opened up 30 spots for people to come back to work if they chose. 1 person showed up. The other 29 prefer working from home. I guess we’ll just have to go by facts and actual trends pointing to an increase in telecommuting and a decrease in office space demand

There are lots of different circumstances applicable to office work.

There's no one size fits all - so as you mention, take everyone's PERSONAL comments as anecdotal
- just an example of what might be out there (don't take it as an affront to what you are experiencing or observing).

So to add to the conversation, what you'd say is:

"In my case, my office only saw one person when there were spaces for 30 provided."

Instead of attacking others' comments as tryng to put you down (they aren't).

[s211]

Originally Posted by officedweller

There are lots of different circumstances applicable to office work.

There's no one size fits all - so as you mention, take everyone's PERSONAL comments as anecdotal
- just an example of what might be out there (don't take it as an affront to what you are experiencing or observing).

So to add to the conversation, what you'd say is:

"In my case, my office only saw one person when there were spaces for 30 provided."

Instead of attacking others' comments as tryng to put you down (they aren't).

Hear hear.