The impact of pandemic on the office market in 2020 led to a 6% reduction in common expenses for buildings compared to the forecast for that year.

The article "Benchmark of office building common expenses in 2020", released by CBRE, shows that the average cost per square meter of Gross Leasable Area of the common expenses budgets approved for 2020 was 2.63 €/m². In terms of actual spending, the figures were 2.46 euros/m²/month, about 6% less than estimated. According to the consultant, "this difference has as its main cause the impact that the pandemic had in some services that make up the budgets of common expenses".

The report was done to analyze how the main expense categories (services and supplies) that make up an office building's common expense budget are impacted by some of the buildings' main characteristics, such as their size.

The data also shows that in 2020 the average common expense budget for buildings located in Lisbon's CBD1 was higher, at €3.16/m²/month. The Western Corridor was the LPI zone with the lowest average, at €2.05/m²/month.

CBRE found that for buildings with less than 4,500 m² GLA, the average real expenses were 3.33 euros/m²/month.

With regard to the cost centers that make up the common expense budgets, it was found that the services with the greatest impact on actual 2020 spending are surveillance (35%), maintenance and repair contracts (together representing 20%) and electricity (18%).