The big city flight continues—as millenials and generation Z work remotely. Young professionals prefer to live in smaller cities and buy their own homes.
Real estate firm Graceada Partners says employees and their workplaces experienced a never-before-seen untethering in 2020. Remote work is no longer an exception to the rule: it’s now the rule. Graceada says that downtown high-rises will lose 10-15 percent of their value. People are concerned about being in a high-rise during the COVID era—a factor that also lessens the need for a big, central company headquarters.
And he says employees now have a stronger position to negotiate remote work arrangements. He says it’s likely that companies will come up with a mixed model—where many employees only have to show up at the headquarters once a week. And the rest of the week, they can work from home or a branch office.