Leasing trends and return-to-office strategies signal a new era for offices
7th July 2025
Anthony Brown, Chief Marketing Officer at BW: Workplace Experts, shares his expert opinion in a featured article for CoStar, exploring the future of office leasing and workplace strategies.
Attitudes towards office lease agreements are changing
There is renewed optimism in the commercial office market, with leasing activity increasing and a broad consensus that the sector is on a steady upward trajectory. This is backed by a recent CoStar analysis showing that new leasing volume in the first three months of the year neared 2019 levels.
While an increased volume of new office lease agreements is a strong sign of return-to-office strategies in motion, the mindset toward office leases has changed. Flexibility and scalability now carry as much weight in decision-making as location and quality of space.
Institutional leases of ten, 15 and even 20 years in length, which were once the default, have dropped to around seven years, with meaningful conversations now happening around five-year commitments.
The flexibility revolution
This shift isn’t just about duration. Occupiers are also pushing harder for break clauses, expansion and contraction rights, and more flexibility in fit-out and configuration. With a broader rebalancing of risk between landlords and occupiers happening, landlords who can’t provide versatility risk losing relevance. ESG credentials, tech readiness, and aspirational amenities are becoming vital levers in these lease negotiations and are creating new opportunities for offices to differentiate themselves in a competitive market.
For building owners, agents and landlords, providing a higher degree of fit-out flexibility can accelerate lease-up rates. For occupiers, it’s a way to futureproof their investment, especially as ways of working continue to evolve.
The destination office
At the same time, there is growing confusion about what the office should now look like. Too often, the design responses being offered feel like rehashes of pre-pandemic solutions, slightly updated with more amenity space and hospitality flair, but lacking real transformation. Landlords who will thrive in the next five to ten years are those who decide to adapt to this changing landscape in a more complete way.
The rise of the ‘destination office’ is one way many businesses are supporting a full return to the workplace. In readiness, larger occupiers will build their own amenities, while smaller ones will rely on building amenities provided by landlords. It’s no longer just about design, it’s about experience. As in retail or hospitality, if you want people to show up, you need to deliver value. This is also giving vital food for thought to a more thoughtful look at hybrid working and the office – is it really working?
Data-driven decision making
In many cases, hybrid working is leaving companies with large, underused spaces, and we’re finding that this middle ground can be costly and ineffective. Increasingly, businesses want to understand how they can best use their space, whether to plan for an office move or prepare future adaption. The use of workplace data, like badge swipes, occupancy sensors, and footfall analysis, is now feeding into sharper negotiations and more tailored office briefs.
At BW, we’ve made a clear choice. We’re designing our office for full occupancy by making the space a place people genuinely want to spend time in. Our new office will include wellness facilities, a gym with a spin studio, premium hospitality-style catering, strong tech infrastructure, and a focus on collaboration areas.
To move forward, the office sector needs to rethink its approach. Is the space being used? Are people engaging? Businesses that answer those questions honestly, and landlords who embed flexibility and tenant priorities into their offer, will be the ones who succeed in the next phase of the office market.
Article originally featured on CoStar.
