The Business Case for Staying Put: Why Office Refurbishments Are Winning Over Relocations

The “To Let” sign and the whole removal van business was the corporate growth icon for decades. It was the same as having to move to a new, shinier postcode to upgrade the workspace. But a radical shift in strategy is taking place in the minds of investors worldwide and in the UK. A new calculus of office management, rooted in both straight-up financials and sustainability and talent retention principles, is eroding the allure of relocating. The savvy business move today is often to remain in the location and refresh, leaving the shell behind for a top-notch destination.

Capital expenditure is the obvious cost factor that is enough to deter people from relocating. The many hidden costs of a physical relocation are a familiar horror story for any finance director: legal costs for new leasehold negotiations, the staggering category A and B fit-out capital allowances, IT infrastructure decommissioning and reinstallation, and the huge stamp duty land tax implications. Often, when these sunk costs are spread out over a 5 year cycle, the refurbishment is the clear winner, and can be 40% to 60% cheaper. This capital efficiency enables companies to funnel money right into top quality, rather than logistics. Rather than paying for a ‘post code premium', businesses are turning to acoustic engineering, biophilic design, high-specification collaboration technology, and innovative property improvement approaches that enhance workplace functionality, employee experience, and long-term asset value.

But there's an even more important metric – operational continuity – that's not on the balance sheet. The relocation opens a vacuum of business disruption that is smartly overcome by refurbishment. Often referred to as a three- to four-month fall-off in efficiency, the productivity loss from packing, address updates, and the post move inefficiency is a productivity killer that is not readily recognized in terms of lost quarterly targets. A phased refurbishment, carried out by an experienced design and build team, enables a workforce to continue working. In the construction environment, modern agile methods also translated to allowing floors to be refreshed on a rotation, keeping the business going as the physical environment changes around the employees, which couldn't happen if the office moved to a different location altogether.

The sustainability story is also now well on the side of refurbishment for the circular logic. The built environment generates an astounding share of global carbon emissions, much of which is embodied carbon—emissions that are already in the steel, concrete and glass of a building. Like a new lease, when a Cat A fit-out is removed to return to the landlords shell, an environmental debt is accrued that is more and more incompatible with corporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) requirements. The key trends in Office Interiors UK are therefore shifting towards ‘re-use and re-skin’ – taking existing partitions, Mechanical and Electrical services and even raised floors, and re-imagining them, thus significantly reducing waste streams and making the physical environment more consistent with the company's public sustainability commitments.

In conclusion, a strategic refurbishment is a strong cultural branding instrument. A new building is a blank canvas with no memory attached to it, while a refurbishment can be an opportunity to recall company history and give a glimpse of its future direction. It allows for the possibility to reimagine the world after COVID for “we” spaces, where working together is the main focus, and “me” desks, which are less frequent, while maintaining the sense of community that comes with a familiar place. A quality renovation approach ensures that these transformations not only enhance functionality and aesthetics but also preserve the character and identity that employees value. This will be recognized more and more by an employee base looking for stability with inspiration. The trickiest of these pivots calls for specialized firms like apex-office.com, which combine the knowledge and expertise to make a transition to the status quo appear like a step forward, and to let smartest be the word, staying put may sometimes be the best route to take.