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Commercial real estate is going to tank. Companies (mine included, and it's a HUGE company) have discovered that most people really can work remotely. Makes for happier employees, and reduces the need for huge, expensive office spaces and saves companies a ton of money. So I think A LOT of jobs will remain remote forever. So, there's going to be a lot of empty office space.
Working remotely also means that people can live where ever they want. So, their job may be in New York, but they could live in Oklahoma if they want, since they don't need to go into an office. So, I think a lot of people may migrate to areas with lower costs of living. So demand in high COL areas may decrease, which means prices will follow suit.
The future is always hard to predict but the one prediction I agree with is the WFH trend being a major game changer for many people. And it will affect real estate, both residential and commercial. There will be winners and losers in both areas.
For residential real estate, I see a big migration out of the high cost cities to more affordable areas. I'm not sure if that many people will actually up sticks and move to a different state or metro area because there is an inherent risk in leaving the job market region. Odds are you'd still want to be close enough to the office to go in periodically. And many roles will be split WFH and in the office. So I see the biggest beneficiaries being the more affordable outer suburbs of the big cities. Take Washington, DC, I see many people moving to places like Annapolis and Frederick and Loudoun County to take advantage of bigger/cheaper housing and schools.
My employer plans to bring everyone back to the office at some point. I'm sure more people will be working remotely after this, especially if they're in struggling businesses that can save money on rent. But I don't foresee it going on forever because of distractions some people have at home, lack of human contact for others, and the difficulty for people who have to learn by being at the office. Even where employers decide some people can work from home, they may expand the size of individual offices.
In college, I had to study at the library because my mother (whom I lived with) had the TV on 18 hours a day and asked me to "do [her] a favor" every fifteen minutes. No doubt, the work-from-home environment is far worse for a lot of people.
FWIW how much do y'all suppose the market for " small individual person working alone " type office space is going to tank as opposed to the market for " big company cubicle section " type office space ?
Also how probable is it that the market for self storage will tank as well ?
I'm asking because while I'm mainly interested in purchasing rural undeveloped land than I can put a mobile home/build a house on , I'm also considering the possibility of perhaps putting some of my insurance settlement money into purchasing a bit of office/storage space for the purpose of renting it out .
I don't think those would change much. People in individual offices don't have to worry about distancing from coworkers, and people are always going to need storage. The thing with storage, though, is that people seem to be buying less clutter now that they'll have to store later. And I think you have to be on-site to run a self-storage facility--unless you're talking about a small warehouse.
I don't think those would change much. People in individual offices don't have to worry about distancing from coworkers, and people are always going to need storage. The thing with storage, though, is that people seem to be buying less clutter now that they'll have to store later. And I think you have to be on-site to run a self-storage facility--unless you're talking about a small warehouse.
By on-site do you mean it's preferable for one to live at the/right by the location of their self storage facility in order to run it successfully ?
My employer plans to bring everyone back to the office at some point. I'm sure more people will be working remotely after this, especially if they're in struggling businesses that can save money on rent. But I don't foresee it going on forever because of distractions some people have at home, lack of human contact for others, and the difficulty for people who have to learn by being at the office. Even where employers decide some people can work from home, they may expand the size of individual offices.
In college, I had to study at the library because my mother (whom I lived with) had the TV on 18 hours a day and asked me to "do [her] a favor" every fifteen minutes. No doubt, the work-from-home environment is far worse for a lot of people.
My firm, which is sizable with thousands of employees, has been reviewing the whole WFH situation along with substantial employee feedback and the overall consensus is substantially in favor of remaining WFH. Not slightly, but substantially (2/3rds+). Our productivity has not declined, if anything, it's been a stellar year for us in performance and financials.
We are reopening offices, slowly, but all employees retain the ability to continue WFH and the expectation is that this will become permanent. People will come into the office as needed but work from home most of the time. The future plan is that we will deleverage the amount of office space we have and reduce the footprint. Some employees (probably around 1/3) will still want to work full time in the office with the occasional WFH day, but based on the surveys and feedback and internal findings, the 2/3s will predominately WFH, whether 100% or at least 2-3 days a week.
With so many people WFH the majority of the time it radically changes the entire office environment, meaning there's less incentive for others to still come in. Why work in a near-empty office? At the same time, I also easily see the workplace shifting to designated days for people to come in for face to face meetings as well as just to have a day where your team is together in person, a factor that always remains real. We just don't need to be face to face or in person every day any more. And we are already discussing a corporate world with many more regional and national conferences where employees meet up several times a year in large numbers, both internally for workshops or training, or external professional and BD conferences, while WFH most of the time.
The biggest problem people have WFH is if family members are also at home at the same time, namely children who are doing distance learning. But once schools reopen full time this problem goes away and it's really parents who are the biggest proponent of WFH.
While there will be some return to the office, the whole world of working in the office for most people full time is pretty much gone forever.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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I don't see working from home, for the majority of workers, becoming a permanent thing.
I worked from home for several years in a variety of roles (health insurance admin and accounting and several different companies). I constantly had to defend it, despite the fact that my productivity was off the charts. The company tracking was ridiculous. The lack of privacy, always being "at work", concerns about things like HIPAA violations, protecting customer information, etc were always a big deal.
I had to have a separate, dedicated work space, oftentimes with a locked door. I've always had to have privacy and security controls in place for my home office.
Also, some people really do want/need to work in an office with their coworkers. There are many supervisors/bosses who want you in the office, even if you can work from home.
From a consumer standpoint, I cannot wait until workers are back in the office. My MVA has been working from home and OMG. I had a vehicle registration issue that i needed resolved, asap. It was the MVA error. Between hearing kids crying in the background to slow internet to not having access to a fax machine, it was a nightmare.
Same thing when I was dealing with my car insurance. I need a document faxes to the MVA asap and I had to wait days until the person who was designated to go into the office, actually went into the office.
Everyone is being for lenient for now, but I just don't see how it's feasible for those working from home, to keep doing it.
By on-site do you mean it's preferable for one to live at the/right by the location of their self storage facility in order to run it successfully ?
Thanks for the answer by the way !
I've never worked at a self-storage facility, but the ones I've used had someone there to handle customers and probably deal with any technical issues (e.g., gate not opening), security, cleanouts, and HVAC for climate controlled facilities.
While I'd love to see more work-from-home options, I wonder how it's going to work after a few years' normal turnover. At some point, half the people you'll be working with will be total strangers you've never met and never talk to. That might be fine for some positions and certain offices; probably not acceptable for others.
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