Apartments aren’t just a living space, not just a home. They’re a place to entertain guests, a place to relax, and more recently they are becoming a place to work.
58.6% of the American workforce works remote, and 41% are fully remote. Just three years ago, only 17% of the workforce was fully remote.
Working from home requires a notable increase in space in multifamily apartments. A small home office space at a bare minimum takes 20 square feet and can go up to 40+ easily.
Any work-from-home employee in an apartment, particularly a smaller apartment like a studio, is already making the most of the space that they have. They won’t have those extra square feet in their apartment without making sacrifices.
With 65% of at-home workers working from the bedroom and 31% saying they work in the bedroom more than anywhere else, it makes sense that the best place to add room would be in the bedroom or sleeping area.
Our client, Inova, is making working from home a painless experience even in small, 250 sq.ft. studio apartments. Those apartments don’t need to be 16% bigger to accommodate an office, they need to use their space 16% more efficiently.
With an Inova TableBed, an apartment is able to reclaim 40 square feet of space. The desk for a home office is right there, waiting for the bed to be put up to be accessible.
It’s difficult to have a professional space in small apartments. A bed does not make for the most professional setting, so a remote worker will often go to a coffee shop to meet with someone. It also discourages inviting guests over spontaneously.
Now there is a way to remove this problem. There is no bed in an Inova-enabled apartment during the day. This makes the most of apartment space, while keeping it more professional than ever before possible.
It’s hard to imagine an apartment without a bed. Often, it takes seeing the apartment in person to realize what this really means.
“It feels as spacious as if there was an attached bedroom somewhere. Then you pull down the bed, and it’s made, people's jaws drop. They get it.” -Richard Hawkins, Development & Strategy for New Land Enterprises.
The average cost per square foot in a studio apartment is $3.19 in monthly rent. To add a 40 square foot space to allow for a home office increases the value of a studio apartment by $128 monthly or more, without accounting for the bed, table, or the untold value that not having a bed in the way makes for a resident. It makes for a larger, more premium apartment without taking any additional space. This can increase occupancy and NOI.
Multifamily operators need to stay up with the new innovations and technologies available. Once, the dishwasher was considered a luxury for an apartment. Now, it’s expected. Space for an at-home office is becoming just as necessary.