The Delta variant has had nowhere near the negative effect on office space occupancy as COVID-19 initially did, according to the newly-released VTS Office Demand Index (VODI), with data through August.

Nationally, new demand for office space rose to a 15-month high in August and is now just 13 percent below pre-COVID-19 levels. This year, only July showed a negative trend for office demand.

"When the pandemic first hit and the world came to a halt, there was a clear correlation between rising COVID-19 cases and falling demand for office spaceas cases went up, demand went down," said VTS CEO, Nick Romito, in prepared comments. "Now, even as cases have risen exponentially over the past few months due to the Delta variant, we're not seeing the same correlation. 

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.