Office to Residential Conversions Post COVID-19

COVID-19 has changed working life as we know it, with a large number of companies reexamining the genuine benefit of having a physical office space and the advantages of having employees telecommute. Employees are reexamining their work-life balance and taking note of an improvement in their prosperity and quality of life when working from home.

Office to Residential Conversions

With the when and how of work life getting back to pre-Covid conditions actually yet to be determined, we are seeing a critical market move as an ever increasing number of employees are beginning to telecommute on a lasting basis.

This expansion in home working creates an opportunity in the form of office to residential conversions. With research indicating that 33% of the workforce hope to increase the time they work from home, there has been a flood in the quantity of vacant office space. We have just observed – and can hope to keep on observing – increasingly more office space in Costa Rica being converted to residential property as interest for office space drops. Companies have noticed no difference in the profitability of their staff telecommuting and the resulting opportunity to save money on expensive offices.

The Impact of Agile Working

Looking forward to the telecommuting versus office work scene as the COVID-19 pandemic advances, we have to consider that physical distancing is probably going to be the norm for quite a while, which implies that agile working will keep on assuming a significant role.

A certain amount of office space will always be sought after where companies may expect staff to truly be in the workplace if the job requires it. Also, many companies think of physical presence as fundamental for empowering collaboration to help organization development and productivity.

However, this actually implies cutting back office space will demonstrate a reasonable choice for some companies who won’t need staff in the workplace all day, which means more companies will have the option to reduce the use of office space. Likewise, the pandemic has sped forward the digital transformation by years, which means a lot more companies will decide to take the totally virtual course, putting resources into technology and programming that can unite their groups over pointless spending on meeting rooms and impromptu office costs.

This has prompted a sharp decrease in the need for office space and the previously mentioned commercial to residential converstions which have opened up prime real estate development opportunities.

High Quality Conversions

Not just has interest for physical office space dropped, but interest for high spec residential space is expanding. With people both living and working in their home, quality is more important, and developers should take this into account because of the particular necessities of clients. Commercial properties have prior characteristics that loan themselves delightfully to conversion. They regularly incorporate extensive and generally open designs which are easier to arrange into smaller residential, with built-in tall ceilings – an absolute necessity for any high spec residential unit.

Existing offices, for example, kitchens and bathrooms tend to be available in places, which make for simple restructuring around the current availability. Furthermore, commercial structures have just been set up on a strong base with solid certifications and sturdy materials fit to recovery into attractive, high-spec residential space.

Got questions? – Contact us today!

-Written by Glenn Tellier (Founder of Grupo Gap)

info@gap.cr

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