The long-standing shift to hybrid working, coupled with a growing focus on climate change and ESG, has enhanced concerns that a meaningful proportion of the current office stock might struggle to meet both occupier and investor requirements.

While both trends apply to all global office markets, data and sentiment appear to be more negative in the United States. Nevertheless, rather than the rest of the world catching up with the United States, our view is that the reverse seems more likely.

As set out in a number of previous columns in Institutional Real Estate Europe, we have long held an optimistic view on parts of the office market. Our core argument is that extended homeworking is negative for productivity and that the concentration of wealth in cities provides evidence of the impact of in-person collaboration on wealth generation. This implies that while the form, location and utilisation of offices might change, and hybrid working is likely to be a perma