How Adaptable Workplace Design Gives Landlords the Competitive Edge
Why adaptable workplaces protect income and future-proof assets
Today’s office market is shaped by immediacy. Occupiers are making decisions faster than ever, and moving into spaces that are ready to use while remaining flexible. For landlords, this shift raises the question: how do you meet worker expectations, reduce void periods, and attract tenants without lengthy, costly fit-outs?
If workplaces are built in days, not months, then landlords can respond quickly to tenant demands, and deliver move-in ready workplaces that remain relevant as work habits evolve, all while unlocking more value from each lease. Let’s explore why adaptable office architecture gives landlords the competitive edge.
Delivering move-in ready workplaces
Previously, occupiers would begin their office search months before their lease ended. Now, occupiers are making much faster decisions, increasing the demand for landlords to deliver move-in ready workplaces.
This approach has its advantages, explains Zac Goodman, CEO at TSP: “If a tenant visits two buildings, and they like them both, the landlord who can turn around a solution in a month will have the competitive edge over the other landlord, who can only turn it around in three months.”
Fit-outs are always costing somebody. While faster turnarounds accelerate the time it takes for landlords to start generating a stable rental income, quicker fit-outs also allow landlords to reduce rent-free periods (offered to occupiers to offset the time and cost of construction work). Between 2019 and 2024, the global average of rent-free periods over a typical lease term increased from seven to ten months. Shortening these incentives is attractive for landlords to unlock the value of their assets more efficiently.
Other landlords provide capital contributions to help occupiers cover the cost of workplace fit-outs (the costs of which also increased in the last year). However, Goodman sees covering phone booth and meeting room costs as a leaner alternative to capital contributions. The value of these fitted elements often outweighs the cost of the fit-out or the rent-free period they replace.
For landlords looking to deliver quick, move-in ready workplaces with reduced financial risk, modular solutions offer a compelling alternative, with installation taking place over a matter of days rather than months (in 2024, the average traditional fit-out took up to 14 weeks to complete). Consequently, landlords can control costs, reduce disruption, and deliver immediate value without absorbing the time and expense of traditional construction.
Future-proofing workplaces
There is greater perceived value in delivering a fitted workplace than offering an empty shell. Goodman explains – landlords can charge a premium for fitted offices, marking up on fit-out costs and creating a profit margin in the process.
But the risk lies in rigidity. Delivering a move-in ready workplace makes financial sense; however, a fixed CAT A+ space may struggle to keep pace with evolving worker needs.
Ultimately, the way people use offices has fundamentally changed. Gone are the days when workers were tied to a single desk throughout their workday. Today’s occupiers move fluidly between spaces – taking video calls in AV-enabled rooms, collaborating in kitchen and breakout areas, and seeking privacy for focused work.
Phone booths have become “cultural icons of modern business,” comments Goodman, observing that the younger generations in particular value enclosed, private spaces for calls and concentration.
Workplace fit-outs must evolve with changing needs, as what’s considered essential today may feel outdated in just a few years. The Gensler 2025 Workplace Report illustrates this clearly: phone booths rank as the eighth most prioritised workplace amenity, while cafés, markets, or food halls take the top spot. Rest or nap spaces also feature prominently, ranking fourth among the most desirable amenities.
So, a workplace that was optimised a few years ago with an abundance of phone booths may now need to adapt to accommodate different demands, such as wellness spaces or immersive technology environments (ranking 13th in current priorities).
Modular solutions change that equation. Built from prefabricated components, modular rooms can be resized, reshaped, or reprogrammed with minimal disruption, allowing landlords to quickly and efficiently reconfigure entire layouts to adapt to changing occupier needs.
Rather than locking value into a static fit-out, modularity allows workplaces to remain relevant over time. For example, a phone booth can be modified into a rest space or an immersive technology space, with the ability to be reconfigured again in the future. As workplace design continues to evolve, the most valuable spaces will be those that can adapt without major construction.
The retention edge
Reconfiguring space quickly and efficiently not only attracts occupiers, but critically, keeps them. Retention is one of the most efficient ways for landlords to protect income and maximise their building’s value.
As Goodman explains: “The game of real estate is to stay fuller for longer. Any point in time where you’re not occupied, or you’re in rent free period, hurts the value of your investment.”
Last year, more occupiers chose to stay put in their current workplaces and extend their lease. Rising fit-out costs were a key factor, but Goodman also suggests that expensive moving costs and relocation disruption influence occupiers’ decisions.
Another reason? Workplace design is simply getting better. CBRE research discovered that increased office attendance is driven less by enforced mandates and more by the quality and appeal of the workplace environment itself.
Retention also reduces one of the most costly and overlooked landlord headaches: dilapidations. Modular solutions further reduce this risk by minimising the need for reinstatement works at lease end to return a workplace to its original condition. With modularity, works are generally limited to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) rather than costly interior fit-outs.
Not only that, but adaptable workplaces allow occupiers to “sweat their spaces at higher capacity,” says Goodman. Modularity supports retention, allowing landlords to maintain flexible, well-configured spaces with minimal disruption, keeping occupiers happy and more likely to stay.
Faster fit-outs, happier tenants, smarter returns
When immediacy, rising fit-out costs, and rapidly evolving workplace expectations define the office market, landlords require solutions that deliver value today and stay relevant tomorrow.
By enabling move-in ready workplaces, faster fit-outs, and the flexibility to adapt layouts as occupier needs change, modularity helps landlords keep tenants longer, maintaining cash flow and maximising their buildings’ value over the long term. As Goodman puts it, modularity is truly “net-brilliant.”
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