Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report 2026

As organizations navigate growing workplace complexities, the need for data-driven insights has never been more critical. JLL’s Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report 2025—now in its tenth year—reveals how top organizations are optimizing their portfolios, shifting attendance expectations while enhancing employee experience, and investing in new occupancy tracking technologies to support hybrid work.

Based on data from ninety-nine global organizations representing more than 69.2 million square meters of commercial real estate, this year's report reveals that portfolio optimization has emerged as the top priority for corporate real estate (CRE) leaders, overtaking cost reduction as organizations refine their approach to physical space.

Another key finding demonstrates the growing importance of utilization data, which has remained the most valued space metric tracked by organizations for the third consecutive year. However, while 74% of organizations now collect utilization data, only 7% rate their data capabilities as excellent, revealing a significant gap between organizations' data objectives and their collection and analysis abilities.

And while utilization rates have improved across all regions, they still fall significantly short of global targets, highlighting the need for sophisticated integration platforms that connect utilization metrics with space attributes and employee feedback to drive more dynamic hybrid work planning. 

Additionally, organizations are shifting toward more structured hybrid models, with fixed in-office day requirements increasing, and fully flexible approaches notably declining. Governance structures have matured, as most organizations now have defined hybrid policies, though only 38% leverage change management programs—indicating a key area of opportunity. 

The report also highlights the evolution of technical spaces, changing space standards, and the critical role that both focus and collaboration areas play in creating magnetic workplaces.

JLL occupancy planning and management experts continue to partner with organizations to develop data-driven workplace strategies that balance real estate efficiency goals with human experience priorities. Our approach helps organizations close utilization gaps, optimize their real estate footprints, and create environments that enhance productivity, engagement, and wellbeing.

Download the Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report 2025 to learn how your organization compares—and gain actionable insights for navigating the next phase of your workplace transformation. 

Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report 2024

Portfolio optimization has held its position as the top corporate real estate objective for the third consecutive year, cited by 71% of respondents in 2026. But the most telling shift lies one rank lower: improving space data accuracy has moved to #2, and improving reporting has risen to #3, displacing the cost-reduction priorities that dominated prior years.

This meaningful shift signals that organizations believe effective real estate strategy begins with trustworthy data. As AI-powered analytics tools move from aspiration to active procurement conversations, the quality of underlying data has become a strategic differentiator.

Adoption in occupancy planning remains in its earliest stages. Just 8% of organizations have progressed beyond pilot programs to active optimization or scaling, while more than 70% have yet to begin implementation, either conducting preliminary research or not yet exploring AI applications.

According to JLL’s Global State of Facilities Management Report 2025, facility management teams are further along at every stage, most notably at scaling where FM sits at 16% compared to just 2% for occupancy planning, reflecting the higher bar for AI readiness inoccupancy planning where results depend on clean, integrated space data that most organizations are still working to build.

The barriers are significant and specific. Privacy concerns are the dominant obstacle, cited by 70% of organizations, more than one and a half times the next closest barrier. High cost (46%) and system compatibility (45%) follow as near-equal secondary concerns.

The technology platform landscape is shifting in ways that signal preparation: Power BI has overtaken Tableau as the leading analytics platform at 51% vs 42%, and Databricks has emerged at14%, a more sophisticated platform capable of supporting machine learning workloads.

With improved occupancy planning and continued return-to-office efforts, office utilization has risen globally to 56%, up from 54% in 2025 and 49% in 2024, inching closer to the pre-pandemic level of 61%. All regions excluding EMEA have increased utilization since 2023; EMEA declining 3 percentage points from 58% to 55% in 2026. Latin America has shown the strongest two-year gain, rising 10 percentage points.

For the first time since tracking began, the gap between actual and target utilization has narrowed, from 25 percentage points in both 2024 and 2025, to 18 percentage points in 2026. This narrowing reflects both a 2-point rise in actual utilization and a 5-point decrease in target utilization, as organizations set more realistic expectations rather than simply waiting for employees to close the gap.

Hybrid program prevalence has rebounded to 80% of organizations in 2026, up from 77% in 2025, though still below the 2024 high of 87%. Structurally, 62% of organizations now require a fixed number of in-office days, up from 49% in both 2024 and 2025, and just 28% in 2022. Fully flexible approaches have declined further to 14%, down from 15% in 2025 and 40% in 2022.

Change management programs have declined from 40% in 2025 to 31% in 2026. As organizations shift from persuading employees to requiring their presence, investment in supporting them through the transition may feel less urgent, but the data suggests otherwise.

Structured attendance without the behavioral scaffolding to support it produces compliance, not engagement, and organizations that close this gap will see stronger long-term utilization outcomes.

The 2026 data reveals the single largest year-over-year shift in in-office attendance frequency in three years of benchmark data. The share of employees attending the office three to four days per week surged from 36% to 55%, a 19-percentage-point increase in a single year, driven by a corresponding decline in one-to-two-day attendance (31% →20%) and a reduction in fully remote workers (18% → 10%). Globally, 70% of employees are now in the office three to five days per week.

Technical spaces—laboratories, manufacturing and distribution facilities, warehousing, data centers, SCIF environments, and other specialized space types—represent a critical component of corporate real estate portfolios. Of the organizations supported by JLL Occupancy Planning and Management, 51 accounts manage 110.5 million square feet of technical space within portfolios totaling 486 million square feet, representing nearly 23% of all managed space.

These are among the most expensive and operationally complex space types in any portfolio, and the 2026 data signals that organizations are treating them accordingly. Data shows a surge in utilization tracking participation from 5% to 26%, a 21-percentage-point increase in a single year. This growth reflects rising organizational commitment to understanding and optimizing technical environments that have historically received far less planning attention than traditional office space.

The organizations that will lead in the next era of occupancy planning are those investing in data quality and governance infrastructure today. AI-powered tools promise to transform how portfolios are planned, optimized, and managed—but only for those who have built the data foundations these tools require.

Improving space data accuracy is not a preliminary task to complete before the real work begins. It is the real work. The gap between actual and target utilization is narrowing not because employees suddenly changed their minds about hybrid work, but because organizations set more realistic targets and implemented structured programs backed by reliable data. The most effective utilization strategies—office mandates, design changes, footprint reductions—all depend on knowing what is actually happening in your buildings, not what you assume is happening.

The window for competitive advantage is open, but it is not indefinite. Organizations that act now to audit their data quality and implement governance frameworks will not just be ready for AI — they will be positioned to lead with it.