The question an employer asks about an office has changed from how many people work here to how many are present on a busy Tuesday. That shift redefines what space is needed.
Desks per person is no longer the unit
Traditional planning assigned a desk to each employee, so floor area followed headcount directly and grew with it. Attendance was assumed to be near total.
With attendance varying by day, a full set of desks sits substantially empty for much of the week while being inadequate on the busiest day.
Planning now works from observed peak occupancy with a margin, which usually produces a smaller total footprint but a different internal arrangement.
Peaks cluster on the same days
Attendance is not spread evenly. Midweek days are consistently busier because teams coordinate their presence, which is the entire point of coming in.
That clustering means a building sized for average occupancy fails precisely on the days it matters, producing shortages of meeting rooms and quiet space rather than desks.
Some employers manage the peak by assigning days to teams, which flattens demand but removes some of the spontaneous contact the office was retained for.
The mix of space matters more than the area
People attending for collaboration need meeting rooms, breakout areas and space for informal conversation, none of which the desk-dominated layout provided in quantity.
Conversely, an employee who travelled in needs somewhere quiet for a call, and open floors originally designed for concentrated individual work handle that badly.
Refits therefore convert desk area into rooms of varying size, which increases fit-out cost per square metre even as total space is reduced.
Leases move slower than the requirement
Office leases run for years, so a decision made about space cannot be implemented until a break or expiry arrives. Occupiers hold space they no longer want.
Subletting absorbs some of this, and the availability of second-hand space affects the wider market independently of what landlords are building.
Because these adjustments arrive at different times for different tenants, the full effect on demand appears gradually over a long period rather than at once.
Building quality became the dividing line
Demand has concentrated in well-connected, energy-efficient buildings with good facilities, while older stock in weaker locations struggles to attract occupiers at any price.
Employers reason that if attendance is voluntary in practice, the building must justify the journey, which makes location and amenity a staffing question rather than a property one.
Older buildings therefore face a choice between substantial refurbishment and conversion to another use, and the second option depends entirely on local planning rules.