Bring Uniqueness To Attract Employees Back In Offices: Anuj Puri, Anarock

Many of us have discovered the benefits of working from home during the past year, including flexibility, the capacity for concentration, and the absence of a commute. Professionals now work in a variety of settings due to improvements in workplace technology and growing professional diversity.

Anuj Puri, Founder & Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, said, ‘We need to bring some uniqueness in our office spaces to attract employees back into offices.’

He added, “At the start of Covid, I thought that offices are going to be down in the dumps. But in 2020, we leased about 22 million square feet net of new offices when nobody was coming out of their home. In 2023, this figure is 36 million square feet. The best year was 2019 when 38 million square feet of new offices were leased. It’s a myth in our country that offices are not going to be here.

While explaining the office occupancy in eastern countries, he said, ‘As you move from west to east, globally the office occupancy improves. So the least is in the US where a billion square feet are available.’

Regarding the need for offices and the slowing down of the office market, he said, ‘We need office space where you can collaborate, innovate, gossip, discuss new initiatives, etc. Offices are here to stay, but not everyone is going to come five days a week.’

He added, ‘There is nervousness within the developers, private equity, and debt providers about what is going to happen in the office market. But not everything is going wrong.