Balancing Cost and Employee Experience – June 23, 2025
Office occupiers increasingly recognize that space decisions directly impact employee engagement and business performance
Cushman & Wakefield’s Midpoint 2025 Outlook reveals, among other things, that absorption is improving in the office sector and occupiers are gaining more confidence in space commitments. However, what occupiers are doing with that space continues to evolve.
The services firm and CoreNet Global have reported findings from the 2025 edition of the annual What Occupiers Want report, derived from a worldwide survey. Conducted among corporate real estate executives across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, this year’s survey finds decision makers responding to cost pressures, shifting organizational models, a stabilizing office footprint and the growing demand for workplace flexibility and service. It’s a balancing act.
“The survey shows that while cost discipline remains essential, organizations are increasingly recognizing that real estate decisions directly impact employee experience, engagement and overall business performance,” said Despina Katsikakis, global lead, Total Workplace Consulting at Cushman & Wakefield. “This marks a critical opportunity for [corporate real estate] leaders to shape strategies that deliver both financial and workforce value.”
Post-pandemic, occupiers’ strategies often focused on taking as little space as possible: giving back square footage by putting it up for sublease and shrinking the footprint when it came time to renew the lease. Those days appear to be over. Just 32% of companies surveyed plan further space cuts, while one out of eight occupiers plan to expand their footprint. Meanwhile, average office lease sizes have increased by 13% globally since 2023.
What Occupiers Want 2025 also finds that office utilization rates are stabilizing. Global occupancy levels have settled in a range of 51% to 60%, a level that is still below pre-pandemic norms but rising steadily as more corporate tenants implement structured return-to-office policies.
That’s good news for owners. At the same time, though, tenants expect more for their rent. Eighty-five percent of occupiers surveyed now want landlords to provide enhanced amenities, services and workplace experiences, and nearly half (46%) are willing to pay a premium for these upgrades.
Although this willingness is evinced by the nearly double-digit rental premium enjoyed by top-tier space, Cushman & Wakefield points to a gap between expectation and delivery. Only 60% of employees believe their current workplace fully supports collaboration, relationships and culture-building—the reasons that workers want to come back to the office.
Cost control remains the top driver of corporate real estate decisions globally, says Cushman & Wakefield. Financial KPIs, particularly cost, efficiency and space utilization, still dominate strategy. Yet there’s an element of uncertainty clouding the decision-making environment. Political instability, changing workplace behaviors and unclear ROI metrics have left many organizations hesitant to act decisively.
Among the standout findings of the Cushman & Wakefield/CoreNet Global report is that nearly one-third (29%) of companies that recently changed their reporting structure now have real estate teams reporting to human resources.
“This shift highlights a growing understanding that corporate real estate is about people, culture, and experience—not just space and cost,” said David Smith, head of Americas Insights. “But to make this evolution meaningful, organizations need new performance metrics that link workplace investments to employee experience, engagement and productivity—not just financial outcomes.”
The report calls for a balanced scorecard approach to bridge the gap between cost control and workforce impact.