The full impact of flexible working on long-term investment allocations to offices is hard to assess, says INREV's Iryna Pylypchuk.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our daily lives in more ways than one. In many cases it accelerated underlying structural trends. The strong surge in sentiment towards industrial/logistics coming at the expense of traditional retail — as ecommerce and changing consumer habits worked against the sector — is a case in point.
The traditional office and work environment has also clearly been affected. However, with the shift towards more flexible work-places that started before the pandemic, and more resilient income streams as corporates maintained profitability, the resulting impact is currently difficult to assess.
Nevertheless, this assessment is crucial, with offices accounting for the largest share of investors’ real estate portfolios across the globe (35 percent), followed by residential at 23 percent, retail at 15 percent,
