Space Utilization Data for Financial Services: Optimizing Office Footprints

Why Financial Firms Face Unique Real Estate Pressure

Financial institutions and firms cluster in some of the most expensive office markets in the country. In Midtown Manhattan, average Class A asking rent sat at $85.28 per square foot in Q1 2026, according to Cushman & Wakefield data. At that rate, one underused 10,000-square-foot floor costs more than $850,000 a year, whether or not anyone sits there.

Location is only half the challenge. Attendance across the industry is anything but uniform. Some firms now require five days a week, others hold steady at three, and many set different expectations by role. Even within one office, operations, technology, compliance, and client teams rarely keep the same schedule. The space itself varies just as much: trading floors, client-facing areas, meeting rooms, and enclosed offices each come with different needs for privacy and sound control.

A headcount-based plan assumes everyone behaves the same way. In practice, employees rarely do, especially at the many firms running hybrid work models.

The Risk of Guessing Instead of Measuring

Most footprints still get sized on headcount: one desk per person, plus a buffer. When a third of the team is out on a given day, that formula pays for empty space. Multiply it across several floors and several cities, and the waste becomes a budget line that leadership will eventually question. In a high-stakes environment like financial services, it’s also a hard one to defend.

The opposite mistake is just as costly. Cut space based on a single building-wide average, and the office runs short on the days that matter most. Teams arrive for an anchor day, find no open desks near their colleagues, and spend the morning hunting for a place to sit. For financial professionals who count on the office for client interaction, a crowded floor sends the wrong message. That experience also undermines the very policy that brought them back. If the office feels like a hassle, attendance goals get harder to hit, not easier.

Either way, the cost of guessing shows up later, in a lease renewal, a reorganization, or a pointed question from the COO.

What Utilization Data Should Actually Show

Not all workplace data is equally useful. Booking counts show what people planned. Utilization data shows what actually happened. The right tools turn raw occupancy data into knowledge that leadership can use, which is essential when the goal is operational efficiency rather than another report. For financial services space planning, a few views matter most.

Real Attendance by Day, Week, and Team. Know which teams come in, on which days, and how that pattern changes from month to month.

Desk and Room Usage Patterns. See which desks sit empty, which conference rooms get reserved but go unused, and where demand regularly outpaces supply.

Floor- and Team-Level Detail. Building-wide averages hide the real story, so data should be granular enough to support a decision about a specific floor or group.

Trends Over Time. A single week is a snapshot, while several months of history reveal seasonality, policy effects, and the difference between a slow week and a structural shift.

Good utilization data also separates no-shows from real demand. A reserved desk that nobody uses isn’t demand. It’s noise, and it inflates the case for keeping space the firm doesn’t need.

Using Data to Support Real Estate Decisions

Utilization data earns its keep when a real estate decision is on the table. It gives leaders a shared set of facts to discuss strategies, weigh the investment, and compare the value of each option.

Lease renewals and renegotiations. Lease decisions usually start well ahead of expiration. Walking into that conversation with a year of attendance trends puts the firm in a stronger position, whether the plan is to renew, give back a floor, or consolidate two offices into one.

Scenario modeling before committing. Before moving teams or giving back space, model the change. What happens to Tuesday capacity if two teams share a neighborhood? How many desks does the operations group need if it moves to three anchor days? Testing those scenarios on a floor plan first costs far less than discovering the answer after the movers leave, whether the project is a single-floor restack or a multi-office consolidation.

Making the case internally. Real estate decisions in financial firms pass through many hands: the COO, finance, facilities, IT, legal, and business unit leaders. A shared dataset replaces opinion with evidence, keeps everyone focused on how space actually gets used today, and gives leadership a clear answer when investors ask how much capital is tied up in real estate.

Nelnet, a financial services company, had been relying on spreadsheets to manage seating, and entire floors sat underused without anyone having a clear view of who was in the office or when. After moving to Maptician, the team used scenario planning to model seating and space consolidation, which helped reduce excess office space and support a phased return-to-office plan.

“Maptician has been instrumental in helping us rethink how we use our office space.”

— Terry Heimes, Chief Operating Officer, Nelnet

How Maptician Supports Financial Services Space Planning

Spreadsheets and floor walks can’t keep pace with a hybrid office. Maptician connects presence, utilization, and space planning in one platform built for financial workplaces and other regulated environments. Technology integration with calendars, badge systems, and booking tools keeps the data and the floor plan in the same place, so teams aren’t stitching together separate solutions.

Real-Time Presence. See who’s in, where they’re sitting, and how space is being used, powered by bookings, calendar sync, and network detection.

Workplace Analytics. Use real-time and historical utilization data to right-size floors and plan portfolio changes with confidence.

Scenario Planning. Model seating changes and consolidations on live floor plans before anyone packs a box.

Attendance by Team or Location. Track usage by location, team, or floor to see which policies are working and which need adjustment.

Built for Regulated Firms. SOC 2 and ISO certified, with admin-level access controls and audit-ready reporting.

Learn more about how Maptician works with financial services firms, or explore Workplace Analytics and Space Planning.

Measure First, Then Decide

Every square foot in a financial hub carries a real cost, and every policy change shifts how many of those square feet a firm needs. As client expectations evolve and attendance policies keep shifting, accurate data becomes critical. The firms that get their footprint right aren’t guessing better. They’re measuring, modeling, and building a workplace strategy on data that reflects how their people actually work.

See How Maptician Supports Financial Services Space Planning: Request a Demo

FAQs

How can financial services firms right-size office space accurately?
Start with several months of real attendance and utilization data, broken down by team and floor, rather than headcount. Then model the proposed change on a floor plan before committing, so peak days still have enough room.

What utilization data matters most for real estate decisions?
Actual attendance by day and team, desk and room usage patterns, and trends over time. Booking counts alone can mislead, since reservations don’t always turn into occupancy.

How do hybrid schedules complicate financial services space planning?
Different roles keep different schedules, and policies change. A firm might have operations staff in three days a week, client teams four, and leadership five, all in one building. Planning around an average misses the peaks, so firms need data granular enough to plan by team and by day.