The employees working in modern offices in Bucharest spend an average of 46 minutes between home and work, and 52% of them consider the commuting time to be long or too long, according to the first edition of the Working Habits and Commuting Patterns study conducted by real estate consultancy company Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

The average daily commute time increases to 63.2 minutes for employees working in Pipera North area, and decreases to 36.3 minutes for those who work in the central area.

The average distance between home and work is 10.7 km, therefore the average commuting speed at peak hours is about 14 kilometers per hour.

The study includes both the employees who use their personal or work car, and the ones who use public transport or alternative means of transport. More than half (54%) of the employees use the subway, 38% use the car, and a significant number of respondents need more than one means of transport to get to work.

Once at the office, 22% of the respondents declare themselves dissatisfied with the facilities (services, restaurants, leisure facilities) in the area, while 47% consider that the offer could be improved.

If the employees could choose their office location, half of them would prefer to work in the central area, but many would also choose Tineretului - Unirii - Universitate (31%), and CBD, Victoriei Square - Aviatorilor (19%). The other preferred areas are Militari – Drumul Taberei (16%) and Muncii Square – Pallady – Pantelimon (13%), districts with a smaller office stock but with a high density of the population.

The time spent in traffic is also reflected in the employees’ desire to work from the office. Thus, if they could choose the place to work from, the employees would spend only 45% of the time in the office, the rest of the time being split between working from home (35%), from a co-working space (10%) or from an unconventional space, such as a cafe or the food-court (10%).

However, when it comes to choosing a job, the most important criteria taken into account are the salary and the job description, followed by the benefits package and the flexibility of the working hours.

The Working Habits & Commuting Patterns study was made by Cristi Moga, Head of Research and Vlad Săftoiu, Research Analyst Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, and was conducted between April and May 2019 on a sample of 500 respondents in Bucharest. The data was collected online by MKOR Consulting.

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