WFH Leads UBS To Sublet About 15% Of Flagship London Office

Swiss Bank UBS has taken the decision to rent out some of the office space at its landmark London HQ as its flexible working policy has led to a glut of unused space.

The bank has sublet two floors of the 12-storey, 700K SF 5 Broadgate building that it moved into in 2015. 

The move is one of the biggest subleasings so far to have been expressly linked to staff choosing to work from home more often. 

For market observers wondering how much space companies might shed as a result of WFH, it provides a datapoint. The amount of space represents between 15% and 20% of the building's overall office space. 

Located close to Liverpool Street station, the UBS office is home to the vast bulk of UBS’ 6,200 UK employees. 

However, as part of a global flexible working policy rolled out to all 73,000 staff at the bank’s offices worldwide, the vast 'groundscraper' has been found to have a large surplus of space.

“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 told the Financial Times. “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.”

UK broker LSH said last month that fewer people heading into the office means companies may consider reducing office space. A survey from LSH published in June found that almost three-quarters of respondents said they planned to reduce the amount of space they occupy. 

The survey also found that occupiers were looking to save space almost immediately, stating they will cut “at the earliest possible” opportunity.

South Korea's National Pension Service paid £1.2B for 5 Broadgate in March.