Office users are tabling lease negotiations as much as possible as the pandemic rages on. According to Jeff Ingham of JLL, office users are falling into three categories: those that don't have a lease expiring; those that were planning on expanding; and those that have a lease expiring. In all three cases, tenants are looking for ways to delay inking a long-term lease until there is more clarity about the pandemic and long-term work trends.

"If people can delay the decision, they are delaying the decision. On the expansion side, if a tenant needed expansion space, they are slowing that down," Ingham tells GlobeSt.com. "They might need the expansion space, but they don't know; so, tenants are kicking the can down the road. For tenants that have a lease expiring, there are two groups. For tenants with a profitable business, they are moving forward like nothing have changed and making it happen. You have got some groups that want a one-to-two year extension because they don't know what they are going to need."

For the tenants asking for extensions or short-term leases, landlords have been flexible and cooperative. "A lot of landlords are agreeing to extensions because they want to maintain occupancy in the building," says Ingham. "They are concerned that people can work from home and they will just flip the switch and close the office—and it is easy to close and office right now."