Office Attendance Surges Year-on-Year, According to New CBRE Research

• Utilisation rates of 41-80% increased in 2024, with the largest companies achieving the best results

• Smaller companies are seeing higher levels of four-to-five-day attendance

• Further consolidation to come, but business growth is driving portfolio expansion plans

Efforts to bring employees back to the office over the past year have generated high degrees of success, according to CBRE’s 2024 European Office Occupier Survey.

According to the research, the proportion of companies reporting average building utilisation of 41-80% has risen to 61%, up from 48% in 2023. Conversely, the proportion of companies reporting lower utilisation has fallen, with only a third of companies reporting utilisation of 40% or below, compared with nearly half of the companies surveyed last year.

The largest companies (5,000 employees or more) are achieving more success, with nearly two thirds of this cohort reporting utilisation of 41% or higher, a result of both natural momentum and the increased use of mandates.

The proportion of employees going to the office three or more days a week has risen to 43%, compared with 37% in 2023, reflecting the increase in average utilisation. This suggests that the higher utilisation rates are mainly due to employees visiting the office more frequently, instead of stemming from companies reducing their portfolio size.

Although operating at lower overall levels of utilisation, smaller companies are seeing improved rate of high-frequency attendance. According to the findings, companies with less than 5,000 employees have seen an 18% increase in the four‑to‑five-day group. This is even more pronounced for companies with less than 1,000 employees, with 31% of this cohort achieving four-to-five-day attendance.

In parallel to rising utilisation rates, the implementation of mandates also continues to grow. CBRE’s research found that more than three quarters (76%) of companies have some form of attendance policy in place, although only 40% said that the policy is mandatory. A further 17% of respondents said that office attendance decisions are made within individual teams, indicating that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to monitoring and enforcing mandates.