Melbourne office occupancy still less than half of pre-Covid baseline

A startling statistic proves that this new habit adopted by many Melburnians won’t be changing anytime soon, despite its detriment to the CBD.

Offices in Melbourne’s CBD are still less than half full, prompting calls for the state government to do more to get public servants back to their desks.

New figures from the Property Council of Australia, obtained exclusively by the Herald Sun, shows office occupancy levels are still less than half of its pre-Covid baseline – at just 48 per cent.

At its peak last month, Melbourne only managed to fill just 57 per cent of desks in office buildings, a number which at its lowest point had plummeted to 27 per cent.

While the data represents a 12 per cent jump from 36 per cent in April, the city is still falling behind Sydney, whose onsite office worker population contributes to an occupancy rate of 55 per cent.

Adelaide is leading the country having achieved an office occupancy level of 71 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, followed by 64 per cent in Brisbane and 63 per cent in Perth.

Melbourne only managed to fill just 57 per cent of desks in office buildings. Picture: Alex Coppel

Property Council Victoria executive director Danni Hunter said efforts by CBD organisations and the City of Melbourne to attract people back were having a “desired impact”.

“Successful organisations are taking this matter seriously and are updating their office decor, fit-outs and technology to make sure staff feel supported and welcome,” she said.

“This survey shows that people are willingly coming back to the office when they are sure it will be a better, more rewarding experience than they can get in their home office, and when they are deeply connected to their office and workplace community.”

But Ms Hunter said the Andrews government needed to urgently step up and find ways to get the Victorian public service out of the house and into the office.

Daniel Andrews expects about two thirds of the state’s public servants to return to on-site work. Picture: David Crosling

It comes after the Herald Sun revealed almost half of Victoria’s public servants were refusing to go back to the office regularly, according to new data released to a parliamentary committee.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Sunday said he expects about two thirds of the state’s public servants to return to on-site work, but acknowledged he didn’t know the time frame for that to occur. 

“The public service certainly does have a greater role to play in lifting office occupancy and CBD activity even further,” Ms Hunter said.

“Think of all the office lunches and coffee runs the city has missed out on from their absence.”

Spiros Rombotis is angry that public servants are still not returning to the CBD offices. Picture: Tony Gough

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the City of Melbourne had “decided to lead from the front and bring our workforce back to the city full-time”.

“We’re doing everything we can to earn the commute of other city workers by delivering more events and incentives,” Cr Capp said.

Speaking at the Property Council’s Victorian Growth Summit on Wednesday, CBRE executive managing director, Dean Hunt, said it was “really important” for the state government to lead the way in enforcing their workers to come back into the office.

“The state government is the biggest employer in the city and that will help bring a really good cadence of activity,” Mr Hunt said.

Urbis director Nisha Rawal said small businesses with less than 50 employees are often the ones coming into the office every day.

“It’s because for those companies, 15 per cent of their overheads is rent, whereas for bigger companies it’s only about two per cent,” she said.