Swiss bank UBS has decided to sublet two floors at its landmark London headquarters after its hybrid working policy left it with a glut of office space.
UBS moved into 5 Broadgate, EC2, a sprawling 12-storey “groundscraper” overlooking Liverpool Street station, in 2015. It then moved the majority of its 6,200-strong UK workforce into the building, which is one of the biggest in the City.
But last summer, the bank rolled out a global flexible working policy that allows up to two-thirds of its 73,000 staff worldwide to permanently mix home and office work.
“Our hybrid working model allows many more of our UK employees to combine home and office-based flexible working, subject to their role,” the bank said. “This means we need less office space than we did before the pandemic. As such, we will be subletting two floors of our 5 Broadgate office, which continues to be UBS’s centre for all its UK operations.”
A number of companies have decided to sublet “grey space” that is surplus to their requirements as a result of the pandemic changing working practices.
The amount of sublet office space available across the City of London and the West End soared from about 3m sq ft in March 2020 to more than double that a year later, according to Savills. The figure has since dropped back to just under 5m sq ft, with some of the excess being leased and some removed from the market.
In March, Li Ka-shing sold 5 Broadgate to South Korea’s National Pension Service for £1.2bn. UBS has signed up to stay at the building until 2035.
