City centers are the life of the party. Pre-COVID-19, people flocked to city centers all over the globe for work, leisure, and of course shopping! Currently, people aren’t making the commute to city centers and a lot of residents who live in city centers have relocated due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Will things ever return to normal?
Work-Life
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is the power of technology in the workplace. When COVID-19 struck, a large percentage of the workforce made the switch from a daily commute to the office to a daily commute to their laptop. Since a lot of people in the workforce have access to a laptop, the business was able to carry on even with major city centers essentially shut down.
For the future, this could indicate that some meetings and work may stay in the virtual world instead of bringing employees to major cities to work. This would allow flexibility in the hiring process since the location would not be a factor. Additionally, employees would not need to live close to the city center if they didn’t have to commute every day. This is not to say that there will be a 100% shift to virtual jobs. This is suggesting that some meetings may take place over the computer instead of the traditional in-person format.
Real-Estate
As mentioned previously, people may not need to live close to the city center anymore. This will put the shift away from small homes inside the city and make larger homes outside the city much more desirable. This will put a damper on residential real-estate inside the city.
On the commercial side, office buildings have already taken a hit during COVID-19 with the rise in online work and shopping. If this trend sticks, it could make commercial space in city centers less valuable than ever. It is unlikely that the trend sticks. When a vaccine is created, people will flock to city centers in an urge to return to life as normal. This will include shoppers, businessmen and women, as well as those who live in city centers. Even then, city centers will be forever changed by the impact of COVID-19 in both residential and commercial areas