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Global Occupancy Benchmarking Report Q3 2022: Emerging Patterns of Return-to-Office

  • Date: November 10, 2022
  • by Anjali Grover

What trends are emerging as companies worldwide are returning to office? To find out, our team at Basking.io followed up on the Q2 occupancy trends report by looking at aggregated data from 100 offices (7 organizations, primarily in professional services and technology sectors) across the world, with 39% of offices located in EMEA, 40% in North America, 10% in LATAM, and 11% in the APAC region. 

Our data shows that the post-pandemic office utilization trends break every traditional norm of the pre-pandemic era. Employees now utilize the office very differently, in ways contrary to employers’ expectations. As hybrid work policies are implemented and refined, actionable insight into these global trends is a necessary step for real estate management in achieving their CRE goals.

KEY FINDINGS

  • Globally, the average peak occupancy rate remained lower than 40% in Q3 2022 with North America experiencing the highest weekly average at 30%
  • There has been no major shift in employees’ office frequency and duration of stay from Q2 to Q3, indicating the solidifying of new patterns in the post-pandemic era
  • Midweek continues to be most preferred by employees across the globe for office visits, underscoring the need for buffer space in offices to accommodate these  peaks
  • Mega cities* continued to observe the lowest weekly average peak occupancy rate, which could affect companies’ demand for office space expansion in big cities

GLOBALLY: AVERAGE PEAK OCCUPANCY RATE REMAINED BELOW 40% in Q3 2022

Contrary to employers’ expectations, Labor Day weekend (5th September 2022) did not lead to a spike in office utilization in North America. The average peak occupancy rate in Q3 2022 was highest in North America (Q1: 24%, Q2: 27%, Q3: 30%), followed by EMEA  (Q1: 31%, Q2: 29%, Q3: 29%), APAC (Q1: 18%, Q2: 16%, Q3: 21%) and LATAM (Q1: 9%, Q2: 9%, Q3: 11%).

“ONCE A WEEK” VISITS WERE MOST POPULAR ACROSS QUARTERS

There has not been a major shift in overall office visit frequency from Q2 to Q3, indicating the new patterns in the post-pandemic era are further solidifying. In APAC, noteworthy changes from Q2 to Q3 include:

  • The “2-3 Days per week” category declined by 34%,
  • Whereas the “Once a week” and “4-5 Days per week” categories increased by 5% and 26%, respectively.

35% OF VISITS LASTED LESS THAN 5 HOURS EACH QUARTER

Unlike the traditional ”8-hour office day” norm, on average 35% of visits lasted less than 5 hours each quarter (Q1: 37%, Q2: 33%, Q3: 34%).

Comparatively, North America had the highest share of visits lasting between 2 and 5 hours in both Q2 (35%) and Q3 (33%) while experiencing the lowest share of visits lasting for more than 9 hours (Q2: 29%, Q3: 32%).

MIDWEEK HAD THE HIGHEST SHARE OF VISITS EACH QUARTER

In 2022 overall, EMEA saw the highest difference between the weekday with the highest and lowest % of visits (Q1: 11pp, Q2: 15pp, Q3: 15pp) while the APAC region saw the lowest (Q1: 3pp, Q2: 5pp, Q3: 4pp).

The highest percent of visits during midweek were observed for EMEA (Q1: 68%, Q2: 72%, Q3: 71%), followed by LATAM (Q1: 63%, Q2: 70%, Q3: 72%), North America (Q1: 65%, Q2: 68%, Q3: 69%) and APAC (Q1: 61%, Q2:63%, Q3: 63%).

You can find the Q3 office utilization trends report in full here. If you have any feedback or ideas on what we should look into next, reach out to us on LinkedinTwitter, or email benchmark@basking.io directly. Get in touch if you have any questions!

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