Pressure from companies to get employees back into offices

The Covid-19 pandemic "forced" people to stay at home and work remotely, and since then, many have continued to work in a hybrid mode where they spend a few days a week at home and go to the office on other days.

Will this trend continue?

Jorge Botha, president of the Association of Real Estate Consulting and Appraisal Companies (ACAI), thinks not, because there is "clear pressure from companies to get people back to the office." Why? Because "productivity has actually suffered" and because "the team spirit, the camaraderie, the cooperation of the companies' employees has been seriously affected," he says in an interview with idealista/news.

"There are CEOs of companies who say they never''have seen and don't know their employees. ' This cannot be seen as the new normal," he adds, emphasizing that "offices are still a very attractive asset in Portugal and Europe." "In the UK and the US, there are certain situations where the sector is struggling because they are large companies that cannot bring back employees and are cutting back on space," he tells us.

When asked if there is still a lot of interest and a shortage of office space, the ACAI president - who is also managing partner of consulting firm B.

Although he confirms that there has been a slowdown in activity compared to 2022: "Since the beginning of the third quarter, we're starting to see a resurgence in the market. We're already''we notice it. We know, for example, of an offer from an international company that exceeds the asking rent, only to grab the space because there is another offer'. "If someone is looking for offices of 4,000 square meters, which is not even something transcendent, they are simply not there," stresses Jorge Botha.