Austin office occupancy rates (lease, student loans, landlord)

[ipott]

I came across this op-ed on reviving downtowns in the post pandemic era - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...how-to-revive/


These charts caught my eye, apparently Austin has had the best back-to-office rates among major metros but still much lower than pre-pandemic levels.

[Trainwreck20]

Morning traffic seems to agree!

[Need4Camaro]

Yeah. Rush hour traffic seems to be pretty much back to pre-pandemic levels. Alot of jobs right now are heavily pushing for Hybrid or fully return to office.

[Austin97]

A friend of mine was up for renewal on his office space. His landlord wanted to raise his rates like 30%. My friend was like you need to halve my rates. The landlord didnt bite so he found a fully built out space, brand new, with all furniture etc, for half of what he was paying. The landlord eventually came back and agreed, but he had already signed the new lease.

Im just waiting for office space to start lowering prices. We gave up our office space during covid, but we definitely lost a lot of culture working remote.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Austin97

A friend of mine was up for renewal on his office space. His landlord wanted to raise his rates like 30%. My friend was like you need to halve my rates. The landlord didnt bite so he found a fully built out space, brand new, with all furniture etc, for half of what he was paying. The landlord eventually came back and agreed, but he had already signed the new lease.

Im just waiting for office space to start lowering prices. We gave up our office space during covid, but we definitely lost a lot of culture working remote.

I am not involved in our office space 'negotiations' that occur every five years, but I know we were ready to completely drop the current space, so I suspect that we got a decent rate. We did end up cutting our floor space by about half (although some was not really utilized even pre-pandemic). The space we vacated has been taken over by some law firm.

Our company has been growing over the last few years and we are starting to utilize our space for newer employees. The original people that worked in our offices don't seem to be in a hurry to come back for the most part.

[Need4Camaro]

Meh. I am happy remote. Dont care about office culture. If I never have to go back in, I probably never would.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Meh. I am happy remote. Dont care about office culture. If I never have to go back in, I probably never would.

I am too close to retirement to really worry about it ('company culture') and I understand where it doesn't count much on an individual basis, but long-term will be interesting. Our company is top two or three in the US in a specific field and the competition between the top companies is fierce. Good employees are very important, but so is the customer service aspect. Since the work involves teams - some quite significant in size - and multiple areas of the company, good communication and good working relationships is critical. It seems that new younger employees will be coming into the office as part of the development.

The company is private and growing fairly rapidly. A new group is being based out of Austin in our current office space and I have seen some of the interviewees. The applicant willing to come in to the office will likely get the job over a equal (or near-equal) candidate that wants remote. Are they missing some? Don't know. Are they still hiring some positions as fully remote? Yup. I have a strong suspicion that the in-office people starting now will surpass the remote people in ability, pay, and advancement in relatively short order.

For young people looking forward, it has the potential to be a very lucrative career if you are willing to simply come in. For old people (like me ), it may make little difference.

[ashbeeigh]

I’ve lost count of how many people I see online daily asking for help find a remote job. I was only remote for a few months and otherwise am fully in person. I could go either way and sm contemplating a switch after I pay off my student loans. (In a few months).

[Ice_Major]

Traffic is noticeably lighter Mondays and Fridays in my neck of the woods. I assume the hybrid workers are choosing those days to work from home.

There is talk of converting the unused office space in New York and San Francisco to housing as a way to address affordability issues. I wonder if Austin city leaders are thinking the same.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Meh. I am happy remote. Dont care about office culture. If I never have to go back in, I probably never would.

office culture is actually about trust. People being willing to be open and honest when there are problems. This is mandatory for strong teams. Being remote makes it much more difficult to build the trust which means it is much more difficult to build strong teams.