Amenities and their place within the office location decision process

For decades, choosing an office was largely a property exercise: location, rent, floorplate, lease terms and transport connections. Those factors still matter. But the way we work has changed, and so has the way businesses need to think about location.

As employers encourage employees to spend more time in the office, the question is no longer simply “Can our people get there?” It is increasingly “What does coming here add to their day?”

That makes the environment surrounding an office — its restaurants, cafés, shops, gyms, parks, green spaces, wellbeing facilities and everyday services — an increasingly important part of the location choice decision.

The office journey doesn't end at the front door

Travel time remains fundamental. An attractive office is of limited value if a significant proportion of the workforce faces a difficult or lengthy commute.

But accessibility is only one part of the employee experience.

Consider two offices with broadly comparable journey times. One sits in an area with cafés, healthy lunch options, restaurants, gyms, green space, shops and services within a short walk. The other offers very little outside the building.

On a traditional property comparison, the two locations might appear relatively similar.

From an employee perspective, they can offer very different working day experiences.

The first allows someone to pick up breakfast on the way in, meet a colleague for coffee, go to the gym before work, buy lunch without travelling far, take a walk through a park at lunchtime, run an errand, attend a yoga class after work or socialise with colleagues at the end of the day.

These may appear to be small conveniences individually. Collectively, however, they help make a day in the office easier, more enjoyable and potentially more valuable.

Earning the commute

This matters particularly in a hybrid working environment.

Employees who have experienced the flexibility of working from home inevitably make a value judgement when deciding how they feel about travelling to an office. The journey requires time, money and effort.

Businesses therefore need to think about how they earn that commute.

Research supports this shift. CBRE's 2025 European Office Occupier Sentiment Survey found that 54% of employers wanted employees in the office three or more days a week, while only 42% were achieving that level. Creating a vibrant and engaging office atmosphere was identified as the leading challenge in attracting employees back.

The office itself clearly matters, but so does what surrounds it.

The workplace should increasingly be considered as three interconnected environments: the office + the building + the neighbourhood.

A company may control the first, have some influence over the second, but it still needs to choose the third carefully.

What does good amenity actually mean?

Good amenity does not simply mean having a large number of restaurants nearby.

Different amenities support different parts of an employee's working day and different employee needs.

Food and social amenities — cafés, restaurants, coffee shops, healthy food options and informal meeting venues — make lunch and breaks easier while creating opportunities for colleagues to interact away from their desks.

Health and wellbeing amenities — gyms, yoga and Pilates studios, fitness classes, running routes, parks and green spaces — give employees opportunities to incorporate physical activity and mental breaks into a working day.

Everyday conveniences — supermarkets, pharmacies, dry cleaners, banks, parcel collection points and other shops and services — can allow employees to combine office attendance with tasks that otherwise compete with their personal time.

Outdoor and relaxation spaces — parks, squares, waterfronts, gardens and pedestrian areas — provide somewhere to step away from the desk, take a walking meeting, eat outside or simply reset during the day.

Social and cultural amenities — bars, restaurants, entertainment, events and cultural destinations — can support the informal interaction and social connection that remain important reasons for bringing teams together physically.

And importantly, amenity is not necessarily about luxury.

Recent CBRE research found practical everyday conveniences particularly important, with cafés and restaurants among the amenities most associated with attracting employees.

The British Council for Offices has similarly highlighted an important distinction: the market should not simply engage in an "amenity arms race". Gyms, terraces, cycle facilities, wellness suites and coffee bars are increasingly expected in high-quality workplaces; what matters is how the overall environment is actually experienced by employees.

Amenities can turn office attendance into an opportunity rather than an obligation

This is perhaps where amenities have their greatest strategic value. If employees are being asked to spend more time in the office, businesses have broadly two ways of approaching the issue:

• they can focus purely on attendance requirements or
• they can combine clear workplace policies with an environment that makes attendance more worthwhile.

The second approach recognises that people are not simply travelling to a desk. They are giving up some of the convenience and flexibility associated with working from home.

A well-selected office location can give something back.

A lunchtime gym session, a walk in the park, coffee with a colleague, access to better food or the ability to complete a personal errand on the way home can all help integrate office attendance into someone's wider life.

That doesn't mean a yoga studio or good coffee will, by itself, persuade someone to undertake an unreasonable commute.

In fact, that is precisely why travel time and amenity should be considered together rather than separately.