Surrey Research Park reports highest ever level of occupancy as tenants value office return

With the commercial property market adapting to the post-pandemic climate, Surrey Research Park, home to circa 170 businesses, reports the highest level of occupancy ever, as its latest survey reveals its tenants continue to value the benefits of office-based working at the Park.

Throughout the pandemic, businesses continued to demand office space, with many businesses reaping the benefits of the flexible and supportive leasing option at the Park. Now businesses are welcoming the return to office-based working with respondents to the survey revealing the top three benefits being collaboration in person, learning from colleagues and improving wellbeing/mental health of employees.

Other office-based benefits cited by tenants included better training and support for junior employees, easier to instil company culture, easier access to research with the University of Surrey, socialising with colleagues, and increased likelihood of increasing revenues.

Businesses on the Park remain committed to their office space whilst welcoming flexibility to work from home, with nearly half of businesses stating they will allow employees to choose if they wish to work from home or the office.

Grant Bourhill, CEO, Surrey Research Park comments, “Despite the backdrop of the pandemic, we have experienced great demand and the return to office-based working – whether on a full-time or flexible basis – will provide renewed energy and a boost to tenant businesses across all sectors. The opportunity to collaborate and learn from one another in person should not be under-estimated.

“It is also pertinent that our survey results buck general nationwide trends and highlight, in particular, that many of our tenants feel there is a significant benefit in collaboration at Surrey Research Park. This is backed up by the recent report from BIGGAR Economics which revealed that businesses at Surrey Research Park are twice as productive in terms of economic output per employee as their local and national counterparts.”

Surrey Research Park provides a range of support to tenants to help entrepreneurial businesses to thrive – including flexible tenancies, mentoring for early-stage businesses and forging research collaborations with the University of Surrey. Businesses located on the Park generate over £1 billion of economic activity each year and create over 4,000 jobs in Guildford. For further information, please visit www.surrey-research-park.com