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Downtowns will recover, but not any time soon

The gap between downtown and suburban office vacancy rates has widened alarmingly since 2020. This reflects pandemic-driven changes to working patterns, exacerbated by the cyclical slowdown. In our view, this shift cannot last. While any recovery will be slow, there has already been a notable shift in relative rents and ultimately quality will drive demand, which tends to favour downtown districts.

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