According to Savillis PLC, who completed a survey of 200 contractors and developers, the last three months has seen an increase in refurbishment activity following the previous 21 months of falling project numbers.
Richard Norton, the Jones Lang LaSalle international director, said that many businesses are now thinking about refurbishing their extra office space, in place of the expense of moving to a new location.
Depending on the business, office refurbishment can mean upgrading the interior of an office or stripping a building out completely or simply changing the workplace layout. A solution to maximise office space has been to provide desk space rental and shared offices, the increase in the number of searches on websites offering desk space is an indication of the rising need and number of companies offering this type of office space rental.
The process is looked upon favourably, as for many tenants it is a cheaper way to get out of renting new office space, and for landlords it is cheaper than building a new structure.
British Land Co. stated that until rents start to increase in price there was no economic basis for any developments to be started. Thus, over the next two years it is expected that the amount of building projects completed will be at their all time low for the last thirty years.
Outside of refurbishment, many businesses are also looking at ways to fit their reconfigured staff into the same amount of space, such as in banks that have started to hire more new employees as the recession begins to swing around.
