Offices Still Important Despite Popularity of Remote Work

It is notable that there is no single dominant hybrid model, as some people are allowed to work four days a week remotely, while some spend four days per week in the office, and one working from home.

"As there is no one-size-fits-all solution, adaptability is now one of the most prominent values of offices," says Barbara Kántor, research Ddrector at Catapult Research & Design Lab.

In Icon Real Estate Management's experience, the percentage of underutilized facilities on the market has recently increased from 5% to 10-11%. This is leading to landlords having to compete for tenants, thus increasing the quality of property management services and the importance of ongoing dialogue and education to support effective property use with clients, who are often unsure of their current situation.

"It is important for the property manager to have a clear understanding of the tenants' needs, which we know well thanks to ongoing communication and personal contacts. There is no single common model among our clients, everyone has different needs that are constantly evolving and changing. At Icon, we respond quickly and flexibly to these individual needs and requests, helping property owners to make the best use of their offices and tenants to find the optimal operating model, says Gábor Nagy, managing director of Icon. 

Thanks to automation, IT innovations, and ESG solutions, Icon's company's buildings can now adapt their operating settings not only to the time of day, but also to where and how many people are in the facilities at any given time, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal.. This increases staff satisfaction and can also deliver visible savings on utility bills, Icon argues.

"At Epam, we continued our flexible working practice after the pandemic because it proved to improve efficiency in the home environment. Office presence is still not mandatory, but the existence of the office itself is important: on the one hand, there are colleagues who prefer to be present in person, and on the other hand, we are seeing the office function gradually changing. It is increasingly becoming a community space, fostering cooperation between colleagues and team cohesion, which clearly increases employee satisfaction and efficiency. We believe it is important that the workplace is not just a place to work, but a place to be inspired and grow together," says Imre Branyiczki, head of HR at Epam, one of Icon's tenants.