Quantifying Oakland’s flight to quality in post-pandemic employee engagement

Avison Young’s innovative Office Busyness Index tool tracks return-to-office trends using anonymized mobility data. This data provides a comprehensive view of office utilization across various U.S. properties. By setting June 2019 as a baseline, the index measures post-pandemic recovery levels, presenting them as a percentage relative to pre-pandemic office activity.
Flight to quality, the phenomenon in which office occupancy and leasing activity has favored higher class and amenitized properties, have become a common point of discussion in the post-pandemic recovery period. There has been a clear bifurcation in terms of raw vacancy levels.
However, the difference in actual employee engagement has only recently been identified. Our Office Busyness Index reveals that throughout the entire post-pandemic recovery, Trophy and Class A office buildings in the East Bay have experienced an average of 6% higher office activity compared to their Class B and C counterparts since 2021. In 2024, this gap has widened further to about 10%. This demonstrates the distinct advantage that higher-quality assets hold over the rest.

August 9, 2024