Will Personalized Offices Become Standard for New Homes?

As 40% of the American workforce remains stationed at home, home builders will need to embrace the shifting interests of homebuyers, and that can start with a focus on home offices. Brad Hunter, a housing economist, believes personalized home offices are the big developing trend. According to Forbes, one national builder, KB Home, will be rolling out their own response to the growing home office trend this week: a customizable home office package. Buyers can pick their home and decide exactly what they would like for the office space. Another builder, Lennar Homes, has seen an uptick in demand for their homes with additional rooms, most likely needed for extra workspace.

The one thing that has been lacking is the ability to personalize the office space, and to make that room work better as an office than an extra bedroom, a garage apartment, or a dining room table does. I have been counseling my builder clients recently to figure out a way to differentiate their homes from those of their competitors by hitting this need head-on and bring something fresh to the market.

As of this weekend, national homebuilder KB Home KBH -1.4% is rolling out a semi-customizable home office “package,” which can be built into the home according to the needs of the person ordering the home. “At first, people saw the need to work from home as likely to be temporary, but now it’s clearly not a temporary shift. As many people adjust to working from home permanently, they desire a dedicated, personalized room for their office, and that’s what we have designed into our floorplans,” said Jeff Mezger, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of KB Home.

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