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The global Covid-19 outbreak has had serious negative effects on commercial real estate, including flexible space. Of late, many operators have experienced the flexible nature of the business working against them, as many occupiers have opted to surrender desks and implement work-from-home plans.

This is particularly true of freelancers, start-ups and SMEs. Demand from corporate occupiers has been more mixed. Generally, flexible space with open plan and dense centre layouts is viewed as a higher risk. But in some markets, corporates have taken additional flexible space to satisfy business continuity and disaster recovery requirements.

As corporates return to the workplace, we expect to see them continue to leverage flexible space for these purposes, as well as for split teams and de-densification requirements. Thus, companies enable their employees to work remotely in better connected and more productive workspaces compared to home.

History shows that the deepest economic and social changes occur in the aftermath of major crises, catastrophes or conflicts. They have catalytic, disruptive effects on existing orders, creating new realities and different ways of thinking about the future. East Asia is now in an important phase of its history.

There is currently an understandable preoccupation with how quickly the East Asian economy can recover from the COVID-19 crisis. At the same time, it is crucial to keep in mind how future generations will look back at this period and judge our actions — and inactions.

This moment in history will ultimately be framed both by what preceded it and what came after. Was the chance taken in the 2020s to put the region’s economy on a more sustainable path? This could prove to be the most defining decade of the 21st century.

The COVID-19 crisis is occurring at a time of fervent populist nationalism when the prospects of reliving a late-1…