Breathing Life Back Into Subprime Offices
Developing a Financially Viable Action Plan for Revitalisation – A Series of Eight Industry Calls for Action
Across the United Kingdom, secondary office buildings face an identity crisis. Once the backbone of commercial occupancy, these spaces risk becoming stranded assets – unloved, underutilised and under pressure to evolve or fade away.
McGuireWoods’ London real estate lawyers have been asking a pressing question: How do we bridge the gap between current market realities and the untapped potential within our subprime office stock? Earlier this year, the team hosted a roundtable with key industry stakeholders to investigate that very question.
The session tackled a hypothetical yet familiar challenge: How do you take a tired, unfit-for-purpose office building and transform it – cost-effectively – into a viable, desirable space for today’s tenants positioned in the subprime market?
The answers were practical, inspiring and actionable.
In an eight-part weekly series starting next week, the London real estate team will share insights drawn from that roundtable. Each article focuses on a key “call for action” – a targeted idea to support those grappling with the realities of an evolving office market. Readers hear directly from discussion participants, with selected quotes and real-life examples that bring to life the creative thinking and grounded advice contributors shared.
The series is more than a commentary. It’s a road map for reimagining the future of the office.
What Can We Do Better?
The roundtable began by taking a hard look at where the current system falls short. Why do so many office buildings fail to attract tenants, even in high-demand locations? What avoidable missteps trap value in outdated stock?
Several themes emerged:
- Know Your Market: Too many refurbishment strategies begin without a clear understanding of local demand. Roundtable participants urged landlords and developers to reconnect with local businesses and authorities, grounding their plans in data and dialogue. A refurbishment that is too highly specified or misaligned with local needs can be as ineffective as doing nothing.
- Keep It Simple, Do It Well: Cost-conscious revitalisation doesn’t always mean sweeping overhauls. Often, it means getting the fundamentals right – improving natural light, investing in durable upgrades, optimising existing infrastructure and making a building feel good to walk into.
- Design for Emotion, Not Just Function: In a competitive market, prospective tenants respond to more than floor plates and energy performance ratings. Intangibles such as atmosphere, amenities and the story behind a building can significantly reduce voids and drive leasing success.
- Collaborate on Sustainability: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance isn’t a solo sport. Landlords who bring occupiers along on their sustainability journeys through shared data, flexible green lease clauses and aligned incentives can build longer-lasting, more resilient relationships.
Looking Ahead
The roundtable made it clear that improving subprime offices requires a smarter use of what the system currently allows and targeted reform.
In some cases, it’s necessary to think differently: unlocking value within existing planning constraints, navigating retrofit challenges with creativity and resisting the urge to over-engineer. In others, it’s about pushing for change to planning policy, incentive structures and the metrics used to define success in the office sector.
This series captures both sides. Each article unpacks a practical idea to make progress, whether it’s a developer wondering how to fund a retrofit, a landlord looking to reposition a building or a local authority striving to keep the commercial heart of nonperforming secondary office stock beating.
Let’s rethink what subprime can mean.
Follow each installment on mcguirewoods.com/subprime-offices and on McGuireWoods’ LinkedIn page.
