In a recent earnings call, Boston Properties' CEO Owen Thomas argued the case of the office comeback, calling concerns over the impact to office space demand "overblown."

"Business leaders want their employees back in the office to foster culture, collaboration, teamwork, and mentoring, and to provide more supervision," he said. "Though employees may be working remotely more in the future, it will be difficult for employers to translate lower census into space savings due to employees' desire for more privacy and a fixed workstation."

Thomas predicted leasing likely won't tick up until later in the year, once vaccine strategies are fully deployed coast-to-coast and people feel more comfortable returning to the workplace. He acknowledged that while WFH will become more commonplace in the US and globally, CEOs tend to have a "strong interest" in getting employees back to a physical office environment.