Cómo el trabajo híbrido está cambiando la demanda de bienes raíces residenciales y comerciales

Hybrid Work Is Changing Residential vs Commercial Real Estate Demand!

The pandemic didn’t just change where we work — it rewrote the rules of where we want to live and what kind of offices are actually worth owning.

Five years later, hybrid work is no longer an emergency measure; it has become the default operating system for millions of knowledge workers. The result?

A tectonic shift in real estate demand that pits suburban homes against downtown towers in a zero-sum game few saw coming.

Keep reading!

Hybrid Work Is Changing Residential vs Commercial Real Estate Demand, In this post, we’ll explore:

1. Why hybrid schedules are emptying Class A offices faster than anyone predicted
2. How residential preferences flipped from “close to the office” to “close to nature and good Wi-Fi”
3. Which cities are winning (and losing) the hybrid real estate war
4. What the numbers actually say in 2025 — one surprising statistic that changes everything
5. Two original case studies you won’t read anywhere else
6. An analogy that makes the entire shift crystal clear
7. Frequently Asked Questions in a quick-look table
8. Three up-to-date sources for deeper reading

Ready? Let’s go.

++ El papel del marketing digital en el crecimiento de una franquicia

Why Has Hybrid Work Killed the Daily Commute (And With It, Prime Office Demand)?

Hybrid work didn’t invent remote work, but it legitimized it.

When companies announced “two or three days in the office” policies, employees did the math: why pay Manhattan or City of London rents for a bedroom the size of a closet if you only need to show up on Tuesday and Thursday?

Consequently, vacancy rates in trophy buildings have climbed to levels not seen since the dot-com bust.

CBRE reported in Q3 2025 that the global average office vacancy rate sits at 19.8%, but the real story hides in the submarkets.

Premium CBD (central business district) space now averages 24–28% vacant in gateway cities, while secondary and suburban offices are filling up again — just not with the same tenants.

++ Negocios basados en suscripciones: Estrategias de retención que funcionan

Meanwhile, the “flight to quality” narrative that dominated 2022–2024 has quietly reversed.

Companies are no longer upgrading to shiny new towers; they’re downsizing footprints by 30–50% and turning the saved money into suburban “hub” offices or resort-style campuses outside the urban core.

How Are Homebuyers and Renters Redefining “Location, Location, Location”?

For the first time in modern history, proximity to an office tower is no longer the dominant driver of residential pricing.

Instead, buyers now optimize for three new variables: fiber internet speed, access to green space within a 15-minute walk, and school districts that don’t require moving when the next company changes its hybrid policy.

Zillow’s 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report revealed the bombshell statistic: 41% of recent homebuyers said “better support for hybrid/remote work” was a top-three reason for their move — surpassing even price and square footage.

++ El auge de las estafas en línea dirigidas a nuevos inversores

Therefore, exurban and second-tier cities are posting double-digit price appreciation while prime urban condos in San Francisco, New York, and London trade at 1970s levels when adjusted for inflation.

Which Cities Are the Big Winners — And Which Are Still in Denial?

Austin, Boise, and Raleigh-Durham aren’t surprises anymore, but look at the second wave: Chattanooga, Tennessee; Bentonville, Arkansas; and Huntsville, Alabama now lead U-Haul’s 2025 growth index.

These aren’t just “cheap” places — they offer 1 Gbps symmetrical fiber, new airports, and vibrant downtowns that never relied on 9-to-5 office crowds.

On the flip side, San Francisco’s office vacancy hit 36% in October 2025, and the city still hasn’t approved a single major office-to-residential conversion because of seismic retrofit costs.

The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

The One Statistic That Should Terrify Every Commercial Landlord

Here’s the number that keeps REIT executives up at night: according to Moody’s Analytics (November 2025), the average remaining lease term on U.S. office buildings is now just 4.1 years — the shortest on record.

When those leases roll between 2026 and 2029, tenants will have the upper hand like never before. Many will simply walk away or renegotiate down 40–60%.

The “Zoom Town” That Accidentally Built the Perfect Hybrid City

Take Colorado Springs. In 2019 it was a sleepy military and evangelical hub. By 2025 it has the highest per-capita concentration of six-figure remote engineers in

America. How? The city quietly laid municipal fiber in 2018, then watched as 120,000 new residents arrived — almost all hybrid or fully remote.

Result: downtown office vacancy fell from 18% to 4%, but not because companies moved in.

Artists, co-working operators, and boutique fitness studios took the space instead.

Commercial real estate didn’t die; it mutated.

The European Counter-Revolution Almost No One Noticed

While American headlines focus on Sun Belt migration, Lisbon quietly became the hybrid capital of Europe — but with a twist.

Portuguese law still requires five days a week in the office for many sectors, so companies kept their headquarters.

However, employees legally moved to cheaper coastal towns (Carcavelos, Cascais, Ericeira) and commute only two days.

The result? Residential prices within 40 km of Lisbon rose 68% since 2020, while prime Lisbon office rents barely budged.

Same company, same headcount, completely different real estate winner.

Hybrid Work Is Changing Residential vs Commercial Real Estate Demand: Analogy

Think of hybrid work as the streaming revolution for offices. Blockbuster (the traditional CBD tower) insisted everyone had to come to the store five days a week.

Netflix said, “Keep the disc if you want, but most content will stream from home.” Today, Blockbuster is a nostalgic T-shirt; Netflix is worth more than Exxon.

Commercial real estate isn’t dying — it’s just becoming the specialty disc rental section: smaller, highly curated, and definitely not the main event.

So What Happens Next? A Rhetorical Question for Investors

If your office building needs 70% occupancy to service debt, but the entire market now assumes 40% physical utilization forever… why are you still pricing it like 2019?

• Moody’s Analytics CRE Forecast November 2025

The hybrid revolution isn’t coming. It’s already here — and it just redrew the map of global real estate wealth.

The only question left is which side of the new map you want to own.

Escrito por André Neri Updated on Noviembre 25, 2025