The future of the office sector: Work from home is here to stay.

There may be a good reason for property developers and landlords to lose sleep, and there may be a good reason as well for them to just sit back.

In a survey by JLL, about three in every 10 firms in Asia and the Pacific plan to require workers to work from home for at least two days per week in the pandemic aftermath.

With this, JLL global head of research Marie Puybaraud said office spaces may no longer serve their usual function as a place for workers to complete their tasks.

“We are seeing that the majority of our clients are considering work from home. At the moment, it stands at an average of two days from home in a week, which is very much aligned with what we are hearing from the market,” Puybaraud told reporters last week.

“I think the balance between two days and three days makes a lot of sense, with two days from home, three days at office. It’s an important balance because it’s important to spend utmost time as possible within an office environment,” she added.

The survey that gathered the insights of 352 employers across North America, Europe and Asia also showed that 14 percent in this region may extend work from home to three days a week.

However, 13 percent said they will revert to tradition in the post-pandemic period, as they favor a full return to office of five days a week, no work from home.

Further, more than a third of firms in Asia and the Pacific have yet to decide whether to keep the pandemic arrangements once COVID-19 is contained and business restrictions are lifted.

“We do have a big core of our clients who are undecided, and this is an important fact because we are still into an ulterior stage. Not all organizations are ready to take a decision on what they are going to settle in,” Puybaraud said.

Article and Photo originally posted by Property Report Ph last May 3, 2021 and written by Elijah Felice Rosales.