Over 900 companies downsized Grade A office space from 2019-2022: research

This has resulted in a 3.1% drop in total space office space occupied.

From 2019 to 2022, the space occupied by Grade A offices was cut by 3.1% or  2.3m square feet (sq ft), research by CBRE showed.

The drop was due to the downsizing of 948 companies or 9.5% of all Grade A office occupiers.

CBRE said office space occupied by the retail and wholesale, logistics and trading industry had the biggest decline, dropping 1.2 million sq ft. or 10.4% within three years.

The legal and professional services industry also cut office space by 8.0% or 0.5 million sq ft, whilst the IT, Tech and telecom sectors downsized by 6.3% or 0.3 million sq ft.

The overall decline in occupied office space has also pushed vacancy to set a new record high of 9.6 million sq. ft in March 2022 and further reached 11.3 million sq. ft. in August 2022.