New Year, New Norms: What Commercial Real Estate should take from the workplace in 2026

The workplace didn’t “bounce back” in 2025. It reset.

On 21 January 2026, we hosted New Year, New Norms: What to Expect from the Workplace in 2026 at Sustainable Ventures, with Harriet De Freitas (Avison Young), Will Kinnear (HEWN), Georgia Sandom (Office Space in Town), and Ryan Jans (WeWork).

The through-line was simple: the office still matters, but only when it earns the commute. For commercial real estate, that shifts the job from delivering space to running space that performs.

2025’s real headline: less theatre, more truth

Ryan Jans, regional head of Leasing at WeWork, called 2025 “the end of pretending”: “pretending mandates create culture, pretending occupancy equals impact.” That lands squarely in CRE. If success is still measured by bums on seats, you’re missing the point.

Georgia Sandom, MD at Office Space in Town, offered the most human counterweight: “2025 is about ‘confirm and triumph’ because as a sector, we showed that we’re better together.” In a year shaped by economic pressure and uncertainty, collaboration across landlords, operators, advisors, and suppliers mattered.

The office is a choice now, so it has to deserve it

Georgia put it plainly: “People are using the office more intentionally now. It’s a choice, not an obligation.” That one line explains a lot of what we’re seeing in leasing decisions, fit-out briefs, and operator models.

People come in for things that are hard to replicate remotely:

• collaboration that is easier in-person
• mentoring and learning by proximity
• social connection
• a sense of belonging

And the most important word of the morning was belonging. Georgia again: “Belonging is what we really need to focus on in 2026. Everyone wants to feel part of something.”

For CRE teams, the question becomes: what does your building actively do to help people connect and do good work, without relying on gimmicks?

Amenities are not the strategy. Purpose is.

The panel wasn’t anti-amenity. They were anti “amenity as decoration.”

Will Kinnear reframed it best: “Before you decide on amenities, you need to ask: what is the purpose of this space?” A pool table can be useful, or pointless, depending on what you are actually trying to enable.

Harriet De Freitas added a reality check from the traditional market: “We over-corrected after COVID. Too much breakout space, not enough function.” Many offices were redesigned to look modern, but not all of them work well day to day.

A practical CRE takeaway: start with outcomes, then design backwards.

• What behaviours are we trying to encourage?
• What activities should be frictionless?
• What spaces are under-used or over-subscribed?
• What should change quarterly, not every five years?

“Set and forget” is over. Offices need an operating model.

This was one of the most valuable points for landlords and operators.

Will said it clearly: “Set-and-forget offices don’t work anymore. Spaces need to evolve with the people using them.” Ryan backed it up with the operational implication: you need to keep learning from usage and keep iterating. The old rhythm of fit out, leave it, refresh in five years, strip in ten no longer matches how occupiers behave.

In practice, this pushes CRE towards:

• faster reconfiguration cycles
• better feedback loops with occupiers
• decisions driven by real usage, not assumptions
• less waste created by constant change

Sustainability is now underwriting, not marketing

Harriet didn’t dress it up: “Sustainability isn’t a ‘nice to have’ anymore. It’s a necessity.” Regulation and investor expectations are tightening, and assets that need heavy spend to meet standards get harder to trade and harder to lease.

There was also a useful nuance: sustainability is increasingly read as a proxy for quality. But it does not solve everything. Harriet again: “You can build the most incredible space, but location still matters more than anything.” Quality gets you into the conversation. Location still closes (or kills) the deal.

Flex is maturing, and core plus flex is sticking

Ryan summed up what many enterprise teams have now formalised: “Core-plus-flex is no longer optional. It’s a permanent part of enterprise real estate strategy.” The driver is not trend. It is risk management: uncertainty, shifting talent patterns, project teams, acquisitions, and faster change.

On pricing, the panel was honest. Flex carries a premium because flexibility has a cost. But Ryan’s point landed: “Flexibility isn’t free, but if there’s uncertainty in your business, it’s cheaper in the long run.” The comparison only makes sense when you look at total cost and service layer, not just headline rent.

Hub and spoke is back, but it is becoming “campus thinking”

In the audience Q&A, hub and spoke came up in a very current context: companies moving from fully remote to a more intentional footprint.

Ryan described a “city as a campus” approach: a smaller hub, plus access to a wider network for drop-in use. It is less about one HQ and more about giving teams options without losing visibility or culture.

Will added a helpful dose of realism: we are still early in this transition. Business expectations have changed faster than most portfolios can.

What CRE should do with this in 2026

If you take one thing from the morning, make it this: the best offices will behave like living systems.

That means:

1. Design for purpose, not trends.
2. Measure outcomes, not attendance.
3. Run the workplace, do not just deliver it.
4. Treat sustainability as commercial reality.
5. Build flexibility into the portfolio by default.

Where NORNORM fits in

A lot of this comes down to one friction point: change is expensive, slow, and wasteful when the physical layer is fixed.

A circular furniture subscription makes adaptation easier. It lets landlords, operators, and occupiers adjust layouts as real usage patterns emerge, without turning every change into a disposal problem. You keep a consistent, timeless Nordic look, while the space stays flexible enough to keep performing.

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