Here comes RTO5. Half a decade on from the Covid lockdowns and, to quote JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon last month, “We’re going back to the office.” Many of the world’s big corporations are issuing the “return to office five days a week” mandate — Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, Dell, and law firm Sullivan & Cromwell among them. For those employees who raced for space and relocated to the suburbs or further afield during the pandemic, it spells upheaval.
While the RTO5 mandate could trigger a reversal in the suburban drift, a particular pinch point is with those workers who have children rooted in local schools in the countryside; those for whom doing a permanent U-turn back to the city is an unappealing option. Estate agents are registering renewed interest from clients in this or similar positions in the pied-à-terre — a non-primary residence, in this case usually a studio or one- or two-bed flat close to the city centre.
Of course, some will quit inflexible jobs in the hope of finding a hybrid role. (Citi, Apple, Meta, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Google, and the big four consulting and accounting firms, Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC, have all reconfirmed their commitment to hybrid work.) Many of those who relocated during Covid “did so to build a new lifestyle [and] are largely unwilling to compromise that for a mandated five-day office return”, says Rhiannon Rowley, career transition lead and senior consultant at NFP, an insurance broker owned by Aon. According to a recent survey by Pew Research, nearly half (46 per cent) of employees who currently work from home, at least sometimes, say they’d be unlikely to stay at their job if they could no longer do so.
However, it takes chutzpah to actually hand in your notice in a rocky jobs market. “The net jobs market has been shaky in the first quarter of 2025,” observes Meridith Dennes, managing partner of Prospect Rock Partners, a New York-based executive search firm, citing lay-offs at Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. In London, it’s a similar picture. The UK labour market continued to weaken at the start of 2025, with permanent staff vacancies declining at a rate not seen since August 2020, according to the latest KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs compiled by S&P Global.
“Those folks who may have grumbled about RTO in front-office roles may face more pressure to come back in, and make it work however they can,” adds Dennes.
But given that some 258,000 homes were bought outside the capital by Londoners during the pandemic years of 2020-2022, according to Hamptons research, how many will be willing to make a compromise?
Compared to the first quarter of 2024, the start of 2025 has seen “a more than 20 per cent uplift in the number of enquiries for pieds-à-terre”, says Marc Schneiderman, director, Arlington Residential, “fuelled by buyers who were working remotely but now need to come into central London and the City for work.”
“They are specific in their search,” adds Schneiderman. He notes that the pied-à-terre buyer is distinct from those looking for a one-bed primary home — and security is often key. “As these flats are not being permanently occupied, flats on upper floors in buildings with porters or security are preferred.”
“This market is certainly busier,” agrees William Hughes-Ward, director of Savills Knightsbridge, London, adding that, “people looking for a London base during the working week want turnkey condition, so they can simply drop their bags and move in: recently refurbished properties in period buildings and mansion blocks [and] new builds. [They] get the phones ringing.”
But Chloe Leefe, director of London-based buying agent Aykroyd & Co, advises that buyers of flats in England and Wales need to be savvy. Those over a certain height now come with their own set of “legislative headaches”, she says, as they are subject to new safety measures because of the Gateway 2 system — part of the Building Safety Act — which came into force in October 2023. “This additional layer of compliance ensures that every stage of design and construction is meticulously scrutinised and work cannot commence until you have the correct permissions.”
She also advises buyers considering buying a flat with a short lease (usually of below 80 years) to be aware of the new Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (LAFRA). “Be mindful of not paying too much at the point of purchase and then for the lease extension,” she says. “It can be very easy to fall into the trap of paying more than it is actually worth.”
No such problems were met by Benjamin Gold. In his early forties, Gold works for a law firm in central London. He moved to Brighton in 2021 and enrolled his young children in school there. At the time, his firm was happy with employees working the majority of the week remotely. Now, though, they are shifting to a four-day week at the office.
The door-to-door commute takes him about an hour and a half each way, provided the trains run on time. But, as a lawyer with frequently long hours, the prospect of doing this more frequently prompted him to buy a pied-à-terre — a one-bed 830 sq ft flat in a modern building in Marylebone with porterage, which cost around £1.2 million through Arlington Residential.
At London real-estate firm Chestertons, sales of studios and one-bed apartments since January are 87 per cent higher than during the same time period last year. “Our branches are registering strong demand in central London locations such as Covent Garden, Holborn, Westminster and also Canary Wharf,” says head of sales Matthew Thompson.
New York is experiencing a similar boost. Manhattan condo sales in the $1mn-$2mn bracket (mainly one-bedroom units) surged by 42 per cent in February year on year, according to Knight Frank. “Prices are ticking up [in this bracket], only by low-single digits at the moment — but compared to price falls over the past two years, it feels like a big change,” says Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank. “Our view is that prices [in this bracket] will end the year higher by 3 per cent across prime Manhattan markets.”
It’s not just New York. There has also been a rise in pied-à-terre sales in Miami, adds Bailey. “While the wider luxury Miami market has slowed considerably in the past year, apartments in Brickell [the city’s financial centre], for example, have outperformed, with growth above 7 per cent compared to 3 per cent for the wider Miami market. The return of office working is likely a key driver of this.”
Rory McMullen, who heads Savills’ US desk, adds that there is a push factor as well as a pull. “People are returning to the city after realising that the suburbs were not what they expected,” he says.
Some point out that the division in acceptance to return to work is generational. While Gen-Xers and millennials may be more willing to return to the office full-time, as that’s the model they cut their teeth on, some Gen-Zers who started their careers during the Covid years have come to expect a certain amount of personal freedom in their day. “There has been a shift in the perceived ambition of younger generations who [are not keen on] career progression to the detriment of work-life balance,” says Rowley at NFP. “Younger generations are less attached to any particular organisation and prioritise job flexibility.”
But parents can be less sympathetic. Elyse Leff, vice-president of marketing and sales at Elad Group, the developer of 108 Leonard, a luxury condominium complex in Manhattan’s Tribeca, is seeing “an increasing number of parents purchasing condos in New York for their adult children, to help strengthen their career trajectories”. This category of buyer represents at least 25 per cent of recent sales at 108 Leonard, where all the one-bed apartments have sold ahead of larger offerings.
Wealthy parents stepping in are driven by “the combination of high rents, which are too expensive on entry-level salaries, and the desire for their children to be near the office, especially at a time where hybrid and remote workers are less likely to receive promotions compared to those who are physically present in the office”, says Leff.
According to Knight Frank’s Prime Global Rental Index, a post-pandemic repricing of prime city rents resulted in a 28 per cent increase, with markets such as London and New York experiencing gains exceeding 50 per cent. Meanwhile, a survey published last year by Live Data Technologies backs up parents’ concerns, finding that remote workers were 31 per cent less likely to be promoted versus their in-office peers.
“Having a desirable living situation near the office has almost become a valuable asset to include on a résumé,” says Leff.
RTO5 is also contributing to a shift in the rental market, says Chestertons head of lettings Adam Jennings. According to agency data, the first two months of 2025 saw a 79 per cent increase in tenants moving into central London studio apartments compared to the same time period last year, and a 44 per cent increase in tenants moving into one-bed apartments. At the same time, demand for short-term lets was also up — by 40 per cent — with properties in Canary Wharf and Westminster experiencing the most growth year on year.
“We have had an incredibly busy start to the year for London’s rental market, with single properties attracting several tenant enquiries,” Jennings says. “Professionals whose employers decided to restrict or end flexible working arrangements are adding to the capital’s already high volume of tenant demand. While some are planning to rent those properties long-term and make them their primary residences, others are seeking pieds-à-terre that they only use a number of times per week.”
It’s a shift likely to inflame London’s already overheated rental market, where monthly prices are nearly £1,000 higher than the UK average. “We expect the demand for pieds-à-terre to boost rental prices further, particularly in areas that are close to office spaces,” says Jennings.
The RTO5 uproar from employees continues to be intense. Back at JPMorgan Chase, nearly 2,000 workers have signed a petition campaigning for a hybrid work model.
But when the dust settles, will returning to the office be as bad as feared? As the saying attributed to Oscar Wilde goes: “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”
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