Talent is one of the only measures that matter, and firms with strong workplace environments are the ones that keep it. Google’s main campuses still record a retention score of 79 out of 100, ranking them among the best in their weight class. Apple keeps corporate employees for more than four years on average - well above its peers. McLaren has made the same bet, investing in a headquarters built around health and performance, complete with on-site doctors, physiotherapists and wellness facilities. And if you want a barometer in finance, look to JPMorgan, which has just opened a sixty-storey headquarters on Park Avenue for 14,000 staff and is rumoured to be sketching plans for London’s largest office tower. Banks don’t pour billions into marble and glass for sentiment. They do it because the returns walk through the door every morning. 

Investors have reached the same conclusion. In New York, four skyscrapers alone have issued $3 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities, the highest office volume since 2021. Investors are also no longer limiting themselves to what some would call trophy assets, with loans now backing older towers along Sixth and Park Avenues, in Times Square and around Penn Station. Recent deals include a $450 million refinancing of Apple’s New York home and a $1.3 billion loan on the former Condé Nast and Skadden headquarters, now leased to TikTok and Venable. In Midtown, availability has slipped to 15.5 per cent from 18.2 per cent a year ago. 

London is telling the same story. BlackRock is short of desks, HSBC’s new tower already feels small, and Citadel signed a lease three years before it needed to. In the City, rents for the newest towers have jumped more than 50 per cent since 2020 to over $160 a square foot, fuelled by American banks, hedge funds, law firms and a swelling tech crowd. 

 When Space Meets Purpose 

With that said, the office of the future must be a place people want to be, not one they are told to attend. It should help younger colleagues learn by being present, spark ideas through chance encounters, and let leaders set the tone in person. 

It also has to look after people. Fresh air, natural light, efficiency and a sense of connection to the outdoors are now basic expectations. Without them, even the best coffee or bagel bar will not fill the room.

Read the full ‘Thought Leadership’ article at the link below