Working from home? The office market is back in business

However, one of the interesting data in the survey is that about 18% of the employers claimed that the company’s management had considered relocating the activity in order to facilitate the arrival of the employees. Although 58% of employers feel the difficulty of getting to work, they have not considered moving. 24% do not feel that there is a problem. In large companies with over 500 employees, about 22% of employers indicated that a move was considered.

According to Tehila Yanai, co-CEO of BdiCoface, “Long traffic jams on the way to work or difficulty getting there by public transport will in the coming years be a more significant consideration in choosing a workplace, and employers should pay attention to this. “Today, employees prefer to get to work by private car, although most companies have testified that their workplace is accessible by public transportation (bus station, train station, future light rail station).”

However, Yanai continues, “As the problem of traffic jams worsens, and public transportation in Israel improves (via the light rail and metro), we will see more workers who prefer to use convenient public transportation to shorten the way to work and enjoy more free time. “Parking in new employment areas located near public transportation, so employers could not provide parking for their employees, not even for managers. At the survey, we saw that 66% of employee companies have parking arrangements at work, but the situation is about to change and employers must take this into account.”

“Establishing office and commercial projects outside the Dan Bloc requires thinking about transportation accessibility,” explains Omri Reuveni, VP of Marketing at the Itzik Tshuva Group. “To generate demand for this, one of the most influential parameters is the convenience of employees arriving at the office. The trend today in Israel, as in Europe, is to encourage the use of public transportation, whether due to financial savings, time savings or the ability to work already on the way to work. Therefore, office buildings outside the Dan Bloc must be located in close proximity to the train stations as well as the future ridge station and even the metro. It is also important to locate office complexes near major arteries, and to establish large parking lots, for those who still prefer to drive. ”

Michal Drori, property and marketing manager of Vitanya, a company that deals in income-producing real estate, reinforces this. “Accessibility to office towers has become critical in recent years for large companies. One of the reasons for this is the reduction of parking standards in such projects, “she notes.” This means that companies will not be able to allocate parking spaces to employees, and a large proportion of them will reach offices via public transport. In recent years we are seeing more and more employees coming to the offices by bike or scooter combined with public transport. We also witness large companies that are considering more accessible projects, out of a desire to improve accessibility to the workplace and as part of the idea of ​​employee well-being. “

“Transportation accessibility to workplaces is a significant factor in companies’ decision of where to rent office space,” agrees Chen Lotan, director of income-producing properties at the Levinstein Group. “It is important to choose locations that allow employees many easy access routes – and you can now see companies building near the light rail route, which is expected to start operating in the next year or two, followed by the metro, which is expected to be built in Gush Dan.”

The issue of traffic jams lies in the commuting phenomenon (departure from the sleeping city to work in the nearby metropolis), which has not changed – despite the trend in recent years, in which many local authorities have added hundreds of thousands of square meters of employment and office space. The plan intends to add another close to 20 million square meters of employment space in local authorities and thus change the municipal employment map by 2040, it seems that in many cities the residents work outside the city.

The survey shows that the “leading” city in the commuter phenomenon is Kiryat Ono, where 40,535 residents live – about 80% of them are employed outside the city. However, in this city the employment areas in the locality cover only 108 thousand square meters, and in the last three years the authority has not added employment areas. In contrast, in Ramat Gan, where 165,690 residents live, and it coordinates employment areas amounting to 81 thousand square meters, approx. 70% of the residents work outside the city. Holon is also at a similar rate, even though it includes employment areas of 863,443 square meters for 196,705 residents.

In Kfar Saba, where 101,575 residents live, about 64% of them work outside the city, although it includes quite a few high-tech companies in its industrial area. However, these are employment areas of 562,800 square meters – less than Ramat Gan and Holon, for example. Rishon Lezion is an exception in the scope of employment areas, which stand at no less than 1.2 million square meters, but about 60% of its residents (a total of 255,330 live in the city Residents) working outside it. In Herzliya, too, which is characterized by a relatively vibrant employment area, about 60% of the residents work outside the city. This is despite the fact that it includes 629,500 square meters of employment space (relative to the number of residents – 98,320 people – this is a fairly large area).

In the neighborhood of Raanana, where 76,068 residents live, according to Bogin’s survey, about 57% of the residents work outside the city, while it concentrates an area of ​​412,000 square meters of employment space. In Hadera, the employment areas are even smaller, 380,500 square meters, and out of 98,332 residents 56% work out of town. Petah Tikva stands out for its anomaly, as it concentrates no less than 1.06 million square meters of employment space with 249,231 residents, but 54% of them work outside the city.

Tel Aviv’s figure is not surprising: only 36% of the residents (a total of 463,508 people) work outside it, as it concentrates 5.7 million square meters of employment space. A similar situation was recorded in Haifa: out of 285,262 residents, only 32% work outside the city, which coordinates space Of 3.755 million square meters for employment.

“In Kiryat Ono, Ashkelon and Hadera, the employment areas per capita are very low, with less than 4 square meters per inhabitant, and the commuting phenomenon is very high,” Bogin explains the findings. “In Ramat Gan, too, the amount of employment areas per capita is relatively low (4.9 square meters per capita) and one of the reasons for this is the significant proximity to Tel Aviv and Bnei Brak. Between 2019-2017, Ramat Gan added only 887 square meters of employment areas to the city.”

Bogin adds that in the last two years alone, Holon has added over half a million square meters of employment space to the city, which is more than 60% of its employment space, and in fact has completely changed its face. “However, most residents of employment age are still employed outside it.” “In Rishon Lezion, too, there are over a million square meters of employment and commercial space (4.7 square meters of employment per resident), and still 60% of the residents choose to work outside the city.”

As for Petah Tikva, Bogin notes that this city also added over half a million square meters of employment space, as a result of a significant expansion of the Kiryat Arieh industrial area and the development of the city center and the Jabotinsky axis. “The need was born following the establishment of new neighborhoods and expansion several years earlier. , Which led to intensive positive migration, such as the mother of the new colonies, Neve Gan, Hadar Ganim and more. However, half of the residents still work outside the city due to the significant proximity to the large employment areas in Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv. “

So what is expected to happen in the coming years? Will residents work in the cities where they live, when exposed to the new employment areas? Bogin estimates that even if the residents continue to work outside their city of residence, the development of the metro and the light rail will shorten the accessibility to the center of the country in general and to Tel Aviv in particular. Good news, but running them could increase the authorities’ difficulty in keeping their employees.

“On the other hand, Corona may have a psychological impact and bring work closer to home even at the end of the crisis. Today, quite a few employed people want to work close to their place of residence for fear of closure and traffic restrictions,” she says. She further notes that “it is not certain that in view of the epidemic and the change it has brought about in work habits, it is necessary to develop so many employment areas, as planned by the planning director, and it may be worthwhile to recalculate the route. Tel Aviv) may actually burden some of the authorities. “

“The commuter phenomenon is unhealthy for local authorities,” says Tzachi Sofrin, owner of the Sofrin group. “When most city residents go out in the morning to work in another city, they also usually make the rest of their arrangements near the workplace, so the sleeping city loses them.” However, he reinforces Bogin’s statement that “the corona has accelerated a perceptual process among quite a few residents interested in working near home, which could increase the demand for employment areas in deprived cities. For example Kiryat Ono, where we are promoting an office and commercial project – there It has one of the lowest employment areas per resident in the central region, but has high potential in light of the situation. “

Natalie Marshall, an expert in marketing projects in the field of income-producing real estate, adds that “the employment market will be affected in the coming years by accessibility and flexibility, against the background of public transport development along with thickening of employment and commercial centers on the railway stations.” For example, Ramat Gan has not yet realized the potential of its employment areas in relation to the amount of the population of working age. Recently, however, it has begun to promote the construction of office towers, especially in the area of ​​the stock exchange, the outline of which is in advanced approval processes. “