Three Times More Unused Offices in Germany Than Before the Pandemic
Remote working is leaving many German offices empty, finds a recent ifo Institute survey. “Currently, 12.3 percent of all on-site workstations are underused on an average day because of remote working. Before the pandemic, in 2019, the figure was only 4.6 percent,” says ifo expert Simon Krause. “In other words, the percentage of unused workstations in offices has roughly tripled.”
These recent average figures conceal considerable differences. In the service sector, the share of unused workstations rose from 6.2 percent to 16.8 percent. In manufacturing, it increased from 3.1 percent in 2019 to 9.6 percent. Increase was limited in trade (from 3.2 percent to 5.8 percent) and in construction (from 1.7 percent to 2.5 percent). Offices are particularly empty in IT, advertising and market research, management consulting, and the pharmaceutical industry.
“About a quarter of employees regularly work from home. Some companies are converting empty offices into coworking spaces for more face-to-face interaction on office days. Others are reducing their space requirements so as not to waste money on unused offices. This may have consequences for the real estate market, which is already under pressure due to higher interest rates and construction costs. Moreover, the decline in office use is hitting downtown areas particularly hard. An above-average number of offices are located there, and the stores in these areas are suffering from lower retail sales because of remote working,” Krause says.
