Working patterns changed quickly and property commitments did not. The mismatch between those two timescales explains a great deal of corporate behaviour around office attendance.
The commitment was made under different assumptions
Commercial leases typically run for a period of years, and the space was sized against headcount projections made when everybody was expected to attend daily.
A change in working pattern does not release the obligation. Rent, service charges and rates continue on the original terms regardless of how many desks are occupied.
The cost therefore appears as a fixed line that management cannot reduce in the near term, whatever the utilisation data shows.
Exit routes are limited and expensive
Breaking a lease early usually requires either a break clause with strict conditions or a negotiated surrender, which the landlord has no obligation to accept.
Subletting is often permitted subject to consent, and it depends on there being demand for the space at a time when many other occupiers are trying the same thing.
Terms, notice requirements and the enforceability of break provisions vary by jurisdiction and by lease, so the practical options differ from one property to another.
Fit-out costs are already spent
Offices are adapted before occupation, and that expenditure is written off over the lease term rather than recovered on exit.
Leaving early accelerates the remaining write-off, which produces an accounting charge on top of the cash cost of the exit itself.
Reinstatement obligations can add further cost, since leases frequently require the space to be returned to its original condition.
Utilisation pressure follows the cost
Once the space is unavoidable, the incentive shifts toward using it, because a well-used office is easier to justify than an empty one that costs the same.
This is one mechanism behind attendance requirements that appear unrelated to how the work is actually done, and it is rarely stated as the reason.
Whether it produces better outcomes is a separate question from whether it improves the appearance of a committed cost.
The adjustment happens at renewal
Real change occurs when leases expire, which is why the effect on property demand emerges gradually over years rather than following policy announcements.
At renewal, companies take less space, take it on shorter terms, or choose flexible arrangements that convert the fixed commitment into a variable one.
That shift trades a higher cost per desk for the ability to change size later, which is the same trade being made across many categories of business fixed cost.