Big tech companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google are buying up New York City real estate while the property market in the city continues to slump amid the Covid19 pandemic.
Commercial real estate firm CBRE, which manages about 20 million square feet in the city, said only roughly 12% of office workers in Manhattan have returned to work after being ordered to work from home because of the lockdowns.
We reported last week on Microsoft’s announcement that working from home for employees will be a permanent option going forward.
Big tech companies seem to be buying up office while commercial real estate prices are at a steep discount, and smaller firms have been forced to leave office space vacant.
The New York Times points that big tech companies “have gobbled up more than 1.6 million square feet of office space since the start of the year, most of which was leased or bought during the pandemic.”
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