Whistling While You Work or Something Else?

The Counselors of Real Estate released the “2021-22 Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate” , the annual survey conducted through its global membership of over one thousand commercial real estate professionals made up from over fifty disciplines.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the number one issue voted upon is, “Remote Work and Mobility.” In this section of the report as authored by Cassandra Francis, CRE and Tomas Ctibor, CRE, a major takeaway as noted, “It is clear that remote working, the acceleration of internet retail, and the demand for larger and more natural spaces and other pandemic-era behaviors will remain, at least at some level, which will impact land uses and locales. We learn as an industry that flexibility and adaptability are paramount goals in real estate markets that desire resiliency when confronted by local and global disruptions.”

While we’re all looking for some sense of what “normal” will look like and even more important is coming to terms that we’ve gone through a seismic shift in work life and work habits which also includes business travel, events, meetings and large-scale conferencing, this so-called return will not be 100% as it was in the past.

The truth is that we’re still years away from truly comprehending the final impact and implications of what will be looked back upon as the “Pandemic Era”.

Believing that we’re going back to where we were is truly whistling past the graveyard. Those that understand that we’re amid a new world dynamic are poised to take advantages of what may come of this and find an entirely new tune.