Q1 2025 Global Occupancy Benchmarks Report
RTO in Motion: What Mandates Miss and the Data Reveals
“[RTO] is much more purpose-driven than it was in the past, not returning to office just for the sake of returning to the office. When you dive deeper, there should always be a strategic reason behind why you want people back...so I think it’s not so much purely about return to the office, it’s more around why do you do it, what do you want to achieve with it? And then building the office around that.”
– JanJaap Boogaard, Director and Head of EMEA Workplace Advisory – Colliers
With more and stricter RTO mandates across many organizations globally, there seem to be surface indicators of a return to previous norms. A deeper dive, however, shows hybrid work approaches continue to shape workplaces and occupancy behavior. Discover the patterns emerging in 2025 and explore opportunities for balancing workspace efficiency and collaboration.
Key Findings
- RTO is rising overall, but mandates lose steam
Since the Return to Office conversation began in 2021, occupancy rates have largely mirrored the increasing intensity of mandates. Overall, occupancy in increasing year-over-year but zooming in shows the momentum has not lasted as compared to expectations. - Frequency over duration
While 2-3 days per week dominated office visit frequency in 2024, Q1 2025 shows a significant increase in 4-5 days per week. Is this a mandate-generated surge or does this indicate a behavioral shift? - Mondays and Fridays are making a comeback
Midweek peaks are flattening as office visit frequency trends toward full week presence—Monday is Monday again.
APAC Reached Its Highest-Recorded Occupancy Rate
In Q1 2025 APAC (49%) and LATAM (43%) continued to lead in sustained office occupancy following RTO mandates, with APAC hitting its peak of 65% in March.
Europe showed modest improvement YoY, averaging 38%, while North America lagged at 30%.
Frequency Steadily Shifting to 4-5 Days/Week
In 2023 once/week was the dominant office visit preference across all regions except N. America, but by Q2 2024 new RTO mandates drove a global preference for 2-3 days/week. Now, in Q1 2025, another shift has occurred with 4-5 days/week becoming the emerging trend.
Over Half of Office Visits Are Less Than 6 Hours
Q1 saw an increase from 2024 in short-to-medium duration visits across all regions except EMEA, whose minimal rise in visit frequency indicates a more gradual response to RTO mandates in the region.
Midweek Peaks Beginning to Flatten Out
While office visits peaked midweek in 2024, with minimal Friday traffic—particularly in Europe and LATAM—Mondays and Fridays are now seeing increased attendance. The shift toward more evenly distributed office presence was the most pronounced in LATAM, followed by APAC.
LATAM saw OVI decline from 40% in 2023 to 9% in Q1 2025.
*The Occupancy Variance Index (OVI) provides insights into the weekly distribution of occupancy. A high OVI indicates variable occupancy throughout the week, suggesting a need for optimization, while a low OVI indicates stability. Typically, an office with evenly distributed occupancy across the week maintains an OVI lower than 20%. It is calculated by taking the Standard Deviation of the peak occupancy for each weekday divided by the Average peak occupancy for the entire week.
Check out the full Q1 2025 Basking Global Occupancy Benchmarks Report to access all the trends by region, and identify some actionable ways you can impact your return to office efforts in the accompanying webinar with JanJaap Boogaard, Director and Head of EMEA Workplace Advisory at Colliers.
Contact us to learn how we can help you assess your occupancy and maximize flexibility to support your utilization strategy.
