Demand for high-quality office space is rising across the UK, but it’s not rising evenly.
Across London and the UK’s Big 6 (Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow), commercial property experts have been charting a decisive shift in occupier behaviour: a growing preference for prime, best-in-class workspaces, while secondary stock struggles to keep up.
For example, last year Grant Thornton reported that take-up for prime office space was 62% in the first half of 2024 alone; 33% higher than the 10-year averages.
And Savills most recent market data shows that upward curve continuing, with Grade A and prime take-up accounting for 56% of all commercial property activity through to Q3 2025, reported as 10% above 5-year averages.
For Landlords leasing these top-tier assets, the “flight to quality” is clearly good news; meaning strong demand, higher yields and low to no downtime driving ROI ever upwards.
But for those holding secondary stock?
There’s both a challenge and an opportunity here - and to unlock that opportunity, you need to understand not only what’s behind this new outlook for occupiers, but also how you can create a future-ready floorplan for your rental space that meets the needs of tomorrow’s tenants, today.
Design Tonic X Goodall Brazier: Prime Office Space at its very best
The Expectations behind the Shift
The main drive behind this shift is a mix of tightening EPC regulations* - and rising tenant expectations.
Where location and square footage once dominated occupier decisions, today’s priorities are fundamentally different, based more around performance, experience and adaptability.
Modern tenants want buildings with proven wellness features, strong sustainability credentials and reliable ESG performance; qualities most older offices just weren’t designed to deliver.
“It is widely accepted that the UK’s regional office markets are facing a critical shortage of ‘best in class’ office space. However, across the UK’s Big Six regional office markets, the flight to quality continues to reshape occupier demand.”
Savills, “Why Refurbished Office Space is set to surge”
And hybrid working has redefined what a future-ready floorplan needs to offer, from multi-use collaboration areas and reconfigurable agility to hospitality-inspired design - all elements (we’re delighted to point out) that our out-of-this-world spaces have in abundance!
The New Tenant Mindset (2025 > 2030)
What exactly does a future-ready floorplan look like?
Let’s dive a little deeper into the modern occupier mindset where, looking ahead to the next 5 years, we see 3 key trends - and they’re all areas where out-of-this-world design will make all the difference.
Flexibility has redefined what “Future-Ready” means
As hybrid working continues to mature, occupiers are looking for floorplans that can flex along with their headcount, types of task and the rhythms of their teams, creating a growing demand for:
- Multi-use zones, like kitchens and breakouts that are replacing boardrooms as the place for collective productivity
- Reconfigurable layouts they can tweak as needed
- Plug-and-play infrastructure they don’t need to think about
- And spaces that can cope with everything from collaboration and events to focused work
Wellness and User Experience are non-negotiable
Here at Design Tonic, we’ve championed the shift to workplaces that feel as good as they function since our formation - and Gensler’s latest Design Forecast shows this is now a much wider trend, with a pronounced rise in wellness-driven demand.
Essentially, occupiers want their workspaces to support physical comfort, psychological wellbeing and day-to-day productivity, which in practical terms calls for:
- Better air quality and ventilation
- Better access to natural light
- Layouts that support a range of ways of working
- Amenities that reduce friction, and elevate experience
- And environments that helps employees connect in a more informal, social setting
Sustainability is another Deal Breaker
Again as shown in the Gensler Forecast, the UK’s climate commitments are pushing occupiers to prioritise decarbonisation and sustainable building choices too, with tenants making property decisions based on factors like:
- EPC performance
- Embodied carbon in their fit outs
- The options around low-impact materials
- Energy-efficient lighting and systems
- Opportunities for reuse and repurposing
Design Tonic X No.1 St Michael's - Putting sustainability, wellbeing and a premium experience first
And Great Design will always win
Last but never least, the pull of a stylish, contemporary and intuitive interior never fades!
Design is the one area where landlords have complete control - and where the return can be immediate.
As we all do, a potential tenant will form an impression of a space within seconds of walking in, making quick assessments (and assumptions) about whether this building is the place that will help them attract the right talent, support their team’s wellbeing and work patterns and meet their sustainability objectives.
Great design turns outdated floors into desirable destinations, making it obvious that there’s no need for costly reconfigurations and oozing that prime quality at every turn - making a design-led refurbishment one of the smartest commercial decisions a landlord can make now.
Design Tonic X Goodall Brazier: Because Out-of-this-World Design always wins
5 things Landlords can do now
So if tomorrow’s tenants are looking for workplaces that support wellbeing, hybrid patterns and operational efficiency, how do you, as a landlord, translate that into a building strategy today?
Here are 6 core design investments that will make your property more lettable, more resilient and more competitive commercially over the next 3–5 years:
Create Flexible, Modular Layouts that evolve with every Tenant
Tomorrow’s occupiers want floorplans that can adapt with them and their team, so make sure your layout prioritises:
- Modular partitioning - so spaces can be reshaped with with minimal disruption
- Multi-use zones - to cater for work tasks ranging from quiet focus to dynamic collaboration
- Furniture systems that scale and reconfigure easily - to flex with their team’s needs
- And clear circulation routes that support wellbeing and intuitive movement - because ease of movement reduces stress, improves safety and comfort, supports accessibility and encourages organic interaction
Make High-Impact Social Spaces your new Differentiator
The new world of hybrid work has brought with it an unexpected shift that’s seen our social zones - kitchens, breakouts, tea points and cafes - become the new places for everything from cross-team connection and knowledge sharing to soft innovation.
Read more in our piece “The Office Kitchen is the New Boardroom”
These spaces are now the very areas that encourage teams into the office, and are quickly becoming the defining factor for premium tenants choosing between buildings.
To make these social spaces the thing that sets your property apart, look at building in elements like:
- Oversized kitchens and lounges
- Flexible breakout hubs
- Cafe-style seating
- Hospitality-inspired finishes
- Acoustic comfort
Prioritise Wellness-Led Design & Environmental Quality
Tenants want to know their office space will have a positive effect on employee wellbeing and performance, so it pays to put wellness-based design at the top of your list.
And these upgrades also contribute both to better EPC ratings and long-term resilience for your building - vital as climate commitments tighten.
The best floorplans will feature:
- Great biophilic design, from natural light and enhanced air quality to beautiful, bountiful planting
- Quiet zones and acoustic zoning
- A thoughtful flow that feels intuitive
- Efficient HVAC systems
- LED and smart lighting
- Heat recovery tech
- And systems designed for easy monitoring and optimisation of it all
Design Tonic X Kinrise Real Estate: A high-impact, CAT A+ layout that’s designed to flex
Consider CAT A+ Fit Outs that increase Speed to Let
Eliminating much of the friction a tenant associates with moving into a new space, there’s little surprise that fully functional, move-in ready CAT A+ suites are increasingly outperforming traditional CAT A floors.
We covered how CAT A+ Fit Outs help secure long-term tenants in detail here, but briefly, these high-quality, furnished, ready-to-go spaces are a great inducement for any firm wary of downtime and/or upfront costs.
And for landlords? That means stronger engagement, shorter voids, smoother transitions and assets that feel completely ready for today’s competitive commercial office market.
Create Spaces that Tenants can make their own
And of course, potential tenants also want to see that they can personalise their workspace and bring it on-brand without too much effort.
Landlords who win in this space are the ones who incorporate high-impact, low-effort personalisation opportunities, like:
- Customisable brand elements built into the architecture - so tenants can immediately make the space feel theirs
- Adaptable zones that tenants can personalise without works - offering flexibility without affecting the base build
- Thoughtful focal points - receptions, hubs, circulation spaces - that elevate first impressions, making their workspace feel premium from the off
- And a stylish, high-end layout and finishes palette that keeps the space desirable across leasing cycles
