Demand for Office Space Grows Amid Subsiding Work-from-Home Rates

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nationally, demand for office space recorded its ninth straight month of positive year-over-year growth, just as work-from-home rates hit their lowest levels since the onset of the pandemic. Up 18.2 percent in Q1 and 12.1 percent from February to March, the national VODI now sits at 65 percent of its average 2018-2019 level, according to the quarterly VTS Office Demand Index (VODI). The VODI tracks unique new tenant tour requirements of office properties in core U.S. markets, and is the earliest available indicator of upcoming office leasing activity as well as the only commercial real estate index to explicitly track new tenant demand.

Supporting the need for office space is declining work-from-home rates across major office markets. After the initial push to return to the office in 2022, the share of days worked from home actually began to rise in 2023, peaking in October 2023 before plummeting 31.4 percent from November 2023 to March 20241...