The intersection between office and personal life is increasing

Pavel Novák, Head of Office Agency at Savills, says: "In order to make the right decision about what offices a company needs, it is sometimes important to go into the details of the work activity itself. This detail can determine the final decision and save significant costs. For example, companies, that have moved to online meetings no longer need to be located in the city center to make their offices easily accessible for visitors. They are therefore considering some of the newly developed projects in Prague in attractive locations close to metro and surrounded by greenery. We are frequently asked by our clients to provide them with workplace solution studies or office-traffic studies. Such studies can help a lot in the decision-making process."

"Quite often the companies do not even know what the size of their new office should be, and they usually think that the size is the only decision factor. But not only due to the economic situation and new work trends, they have started to think about new offices and working life in the context of other details. These include shared locations, coworking centres and the opportunity to work from anywhere. These trends positively influence both, productivity and wellbeing," adds Lubomír Šilhavý, owner of WorkLounge.

Denisa Višňovská, Sales Director and Partner at Lexxus Norton, added: "There are projects on the market whose former purpose to sell flats has been changed into rental housing due to the current economic situation. In the case of rentals, accessibility to work is a strong decision factor. In these projects we also design social zones including cafes and other community places. In terms of the trend to work from home, the layout of the flats is changing. In the new projects, we are working with architects to create work areas in the apartments where the whole family can live at the same time."

Michal Hink, Partner at DLA Piper, described another trend that is now appearing on the office market: "Many companies have long-term leases and large spaces, but after covid they realized that they will not use them. Therefore, the possibility of "sublease" became more frequent. In such case, the price for sublease is usually lower than the one for the lease itself," he further adds on the working trends, "In the case of working from home, the employee compensation for utilities and other related costs is currently being addressed. There are some cases when employees are compensated in their salaries when working from home for longer period of time. With the approval of the amendment to the Labour Code, which already includes "work from home" subject, the legal regulation of this solution will be passed."