Return to The Office Gains Momentum as Demand For High-Quality Workspaces Surges

Return to the office gains momentum as demand for high-quality workspaces surges

Manchester, UK – March 17, 2025

The latest OBI Manchester City Centre Office Market Report for 2024 reveals a growing shift of large corporate occupiers looking to expand their occupational footprint when undertaking an office relocation.

In 2024, 70% of transactions concluded over 10,000 sq ft, saw occupiers taking expansion space when relocating.

This contradicts the common assumption that most occupiers are downsizing their occupational footprint when looking to relocate.

OBI puts these expansion requirements down to several factors including:

• Occupational densities – as businesses seek to increase the level of breakout and amenity space within the office to provide an environment that will attract employees back to the office, the amount of space being provided per employee has increased.
• Increasing headcount – despite concerns around the general economy, many corporate businesses have been growing their employee headcount in recent years, with several requirements coming to the market and subsequently increasing in size.
• Return to office-based working – occupiers adapting their working policies around more days being based in the office.

Commenting on the report, Richard Lace from OBI, said:

“Following the pandemic, large corporate businesses were looking to reduce their occupational footprint, but since 2022 this trend has reversed.

There is a general misconception in the market that demand for prime new build and best-in-class refurbished workspace has been driven by occupiers undertaking a relocation taking less, but higher quality workspace. Our research shows this is not the case. In 2024 70% of occupiers acquiring more than 10,000 sq ft increased the size of their office. This is up from 30 % in 2023.

The much over used phrase of ‘flight-to-quality’ is not driven by occupiers taking less space and therefore being able to pay more for it. Occupiers are taking the best workspace because they are increasingly focused on their employees returning to their place of work and to do that, they need to create an environment people wish to work from.”

Our report highlights that companies are moving away from fully remote setups in favor of flexible, engaging office environments designed to attract and retain talent.”

Media Contact:

Sophia Iqbal

sophia.iqbal@rdpr.co.uk

About OBI Property

OBI employs 40 people and provides advice to clients across its multi-discipline services, which include leasing and investment, business relocations, workplace consultancy, branding, interior design, project management and dilapidations.