Close to 7 in 10 expect business environment to deteriorate in H2

Around 76% expect revenue to contract in 2020.

About 69% of Singapore’s occupier clients expect the business environment to deteriorate in H2 2020, according to CBRE. This comes on the back of the lingering economic impact from theCOVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, 76% surveyed expect revenue to contract in 2020, with most of them expecting a contraction between 10% to 30%. Seventy-seven percent have not been offered any relief measures by landlords, whilst 35% have commenced talks with landlords about it.

Furthermore, 69% of Singapore respondents’ leasing decisions were also impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, putting expansion plans and site visits on hold.

As a result of the ongoing circuit breaker period, 96% of respondents now plan to increase their investment in tech to support remote working and business continuity planning (BCP) after the pandemic.

Remote working will be a key focus of BCP measures, with at least 44% of Singapore respondents wanting to review strategies to mitigate over-concentration risk and 40% or two in five consider splitting teams across multiple buildings. Meanwhile, 32% will further diversify operating risks between markets. Evaluating the use of activity-based working (ABW) and coworking space/serviced offices is also expected to be adopted by 28% and 20% of the respondents, respectively.

Amongst respondents, 92% quickly shifted to remote/home working after the COVID-19 outbreak, affecting long-term occupier strategy such as tech investment to support remote working, and adoption of flexible working arrangements at the workplace.