The demand side of real estate is often glazed over by real estate companies. We refer to economic conditions, historical statistics and past data sets not ever really being able to quantify the impact on demand. For our 2013 Market Outlook Breakfast we took a hard look at a number of different influences on demand and I was fascinated to discover the extent to which demographics impact the office real estate market.
Consider the following two demographic stats:
- For the first time in history we have more people reaching retirement age than reaching the age to enter the work force.
- Right now, both Baby Boomers and their children are in the work force. We have the largest working age population of any other time in our history- and, apparently we have enough office real estate to house them all.
Demographically, future demand for office real estate is decreasing.
