italian insights | occupier

Italy | Possible Future Scenarios​

The Covid-19 health crisis has obliged many companies to move their employees to into smart working. Some companies were ready and started from the end of February since they already allowed their employees to work some days per week from home. Other companies were not ready and had to provide laptop to their employees.

Looking at the data of the first quarter, the take-up activity was quite high, especially in Milan, but fuelled by a large deal of 41,000 sqm in Santa Giulia. Some other large deals are expected to be closed in the coming months, keeping the overall take-up volume at elevated levels. However, the new demand is almost frozen and companies adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

Over the last years, companies were asking for new, modern and efficient spaces in the two main markets. Co-working was becoming more important and it was a phenomenon that was slowly changing the reality of the office market, even if it was still remaining marginal, compared to other European countries.

The lockdown has proved that working from home, even if not in a typical smart-working situation (the school are closed and there are strong limitation in the personal movements), can be successful. However, humans are social animals and need to meet and exchange opinions; telephone and web-calls cannot satisfy completely these needs. Therefore, their will be implications on how the office spaces are used: less spaces occupied by fixed desks and more common areas.