Occupancy and space planning

Portfolio optimization has overtaken cost reduction as the top priority for corporate real estate leaders—according to JLL’s 2025 Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark report, 73% of organizations now prioritize optimizing how space is used over simply reducing how much space they have.
 

This shift reflects a maturation of occupancy planning from a cost-cutting exercise to a strategic portfolio management discipline. The top priorities identified across 99 organizations and 745 million+ square feet of tracked data include:

• Portfolio optimization: Aligning real estate holdings to actual workforce demand—identifying which locations to retain, consolidate, repurpose, or exit based on utilization data rather than assumptions.
• Data quality improvement: Only 7% of organizations rate their occupancy data quality as "excellent,"while 20% rate it as "poor or none." Closing this gap through sensor deployment, system integration, and governance is a prerequisite for every other priority.
• Seat-sharing acceleration: Organizations are targeting seat-sharing ratios of 1.3 people per seat (up from 1.1), with 62% aiming for 1.5 or higher—requiring robust booking systems, workplace design changes, and employee change management.
• Sustainability integration: Nearly three-quarters of organizations (74%) now integrate sustainability targets into CRE portfolio strategy, connecting occupancy planning directly to Scope 1/2 emissions reduction and ESG reporting.
• Space-per-person reduction: Average space allocation is shrinking from 165 to 132 square feet per person as organizations invest in higher-quality, shared spaces rather than larger individual footprints.

Occupancy measures how many people are assigned to a space (capacity allocation). Utilization measures how much of that space is actively used at a given time. The distinction is critical because the two metrics often tell very different stories about portfolio performance.
 

A building can be 100% occupied (every seat assigned) yet only 40% utilized (fewer than half those seats are in use on any given day). JLL's 2025 Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report found that global office utilization averaged 54%—meaning organizations are actively using just over half the space they pay for. The gap between allocated and utilized space represents the single largest cost optimization opportunity in most corporate real estate portfolios.

Leading organizations measure both metrics across multiple dimensions:

• Occupancy rate: Total assigned headcount divided by total seat capacity. JLL benchmark data shows the average office allocation rate now exceeds 111%—meaning more people are assigned than physical seats exist, reflecting the shift to seat-sharing models.
• Utilization rate: Actual presence measured by sensors, badge data, or WiFi analytics against available capacity. JLL data shows Tuesday peaks at 58.6% and Friday drops to 34.5%—a pattern consistent across hundreds of millions of square feet.
• Passive occupancy: Nearly one-third of all desk time is passive occupancy—like personal items on a desk with no person present. Badge data captures entry but not presence, systematically overstating actual utilization by 15–25%.

JLL's occupancy planning methodology integrates multiple data sources—sensors, badge systems, booking platforms, WiFi analytics, and HR headcount data—to produce a comprehensive space utilization measurement framework that accounts for these measurement gaps.

JLL's 2025 Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report—the industry's most comprehensive dataset at 745 million+ square feet across 99 organizations—provides the current benchmarks: average space per person is moving from 165 to 132 square feet, and seat-sharing ratios are targeting 1.3 people per seat, with 62% of organizations aiming for 1.5 or higher.

Key benchmarks from JLL's 2025 data:

• Space per person: The current average is 165 square feet per person, trending toward a target of 132 square feet. This reduction does not mean smaller individual workstations—it reflects a shift from dedicated desks to shared, multi-use spaces that serve more people per square foot.
• Seat-sharing ratio: The current average is 1.1 people per seat, with organizations targeting 1.3 and 62% aiming for 1.5 or higher. A ratio of 1.5 means three seats serve approximately five employees—requiring reliable booking systems, clean-desk policies, and adequate storage.
• Utilization target: 79% is the utilization target most organizations set, though actual utilization averages 54% globally—a 25-point gap that represents the optimization opportunity.

Benchmarks vary significantly by industry (financial services typically runs denser than life sciences), geography (Asia-Pacific is denser than North America), and work type (lab and trading floor space cannot be shared the same way as administrative office space). JLL's benchmarking practice calibrates recommendations to the client's specific industry, geography, and operational requirements rather than applying universal averages.

Occupancy planning connects directly to business strategy by turning real estate from a fixed cost into a strategic lever that affects talent attraction, workforce productivity, capital allocation, and ESG performance.
 

• Talent and productivity: Workplace quality directly influences recruitment, retention, and daily productivity. Occupancy data reveals which space types employees actually use and prefer, enabling evidence-based design decisions that improve the work environment.
• Capital allocation: Occupancy insights inform consequential financial decisions and help identify cost-saving opportunities in a CRE portfolio: which leases to renew, where to consolidate, when to expand, and how to balance owned, leased, and flexible space.
• ESG performance: Space optimization reduces energy consumption and Scope 1/2 emissions—directly measurable outcomes that support corporate sustainability commitments and regulatory compliance.
• M&A readiness: During mergers, acquisitions, or restructuring, occupancy data provides the analytical foundation for integrating real estate portfolios quickly and making defensible decisions about which locations to retain.

JLL's consulting practice—-combining workplace strategy, location strategy, and portfolio management — uses occupancy planning data as the quantitative foundation for strategic recommendations. JLL's partnership with Koch Industries demonstrates this integrated approach: JLL delivers occupancy planning, workplace strategy, experience services, and portfolio optimization across Koch's 140 million square feet in 50+ countries under a unified "LIFT" operating model.

JLL's occupancy planning practice connects occupancy data to workplace strategy, sustainability, leasing advisory, and facilities management execution—with defined handoff points and shared data platforms that prevent service silos.
 

• Occupancy to workplace strategy: Utilization data informs space type ratios, collaboration-to-focus ratios, and activity-based working models. JLL workplace strategists use occupancy findings as the evidence base for design briefs.
• Occupancy to sustainability: Space optimization scenarios include modeled carbon reductions. JLL's sustainability team uses occupancy data to quantify emissions impacts for GRESB, CDP, and CSRD reporting.
• Occupancy to leasing: Utilization data provides evidence for lease renegotiations, right-sizing decisions, and location strategy. JLL tenant representation advisors use occupancy insights to negotiate from a position of data-backed clarity.
• Occupancy to facilities management: Real-time occupancy data drives demand-based cleaning, HVAC optimization, and predictive maintenance—managed through JLL's integrated facilities management platform using Corrigo and Smart Building technology.
• Occupancy to experience management: Employee experience data (surveys, sentiment, satisfaction) is layered onto utilization data to ensure space changes improve employee well-being and efficiency.

This integrated model is operational, not theoretical. JLL's engagement with Koch Industries demonstrates the full integration—occupancy planning, workplace strategy, experience services, portfolio optimization, and facilities management delivered under a unified operating model across 140 million square feet in 50+ countries.

JLL integrates change management into every occupancy planning engagement from day one—not as an afterthought once space decisions are made, but as a parallel workstream that ensures employees understand, accept, and adopt new space configurations.
 

• Stakeholder engagement from kickoff: JLL involves CRE, HR, IT, facilities, and business unit leaders in the discovery phase to ensure alignment on objectives and constraints before any data analysis begins.
• Evidence-based communication: Occupancy data provides transparent, defensible evidence for space changes — replacing perceptions and politics with facts about how space is actually used.
• Pilot-before-scale approach: JLL recommends piloting space changes on 1–2 floors before rolling out across a building or portfolio, allowing the organization to test, learn, and refine before full commitment.
• Employee feedback loops: Post-implementation surveys and ongoing utilization monitoring confirm whether changes achieved their intended outcomes and identify adjustments needed.

Change management is critical because data shows that 1 in 5 employees ignore return-to-office mandates and 40% of managers do not enforce them. Space changes that lack employee buy-in fail regardless of how well the data supports them. JLL's Experience Management practice provides the employee engagement expertise that complements the analytical rigor of occupancy planning.

Yes. JLL manages occupancy planning across 880 million+ square feet globally for organizations spanning financial services, technology, life sciences, manufacturing, government, energy, and nonprofit sectors—from single-building studies to enterprise programs covering hundreds of locations across multiple countries.

Representative engagements include:

• Global financial services: JLL helped a global financial leader integrate occupancy, lease, and transaction data across its worldwide portfolio, identifying $120 million in savings and enabling a headquarters relocation from 500,000 to 250,000 square feet.
• Energy and utilities: A Northern California utility company partnered with JLL to consolidate five offices into one, reducing its East Bay footprint by 50%, saving $42 million, and advancing net-zero goals through integrated occupancy planning, workplace strategy, and facilities management.
• Life sciences: A global life sciences company used JLL's analytics to gain portfolio-wide utilization visibility at the building, campus, and business unit level—informing hybrid workplace decisions across diverse facility types.
• Technology: A global semiconductor firm tasked JLL managed technology services team to implement Archibus-based space management, achieving 90–95% occupancy before seeking new space while doubling its portfolio from 3 to 6 million square feet.