Why do people say that "return to office" is about raising commercial real estate prices?
A lot of times, when people discuss the phenomenon of employers ending work-from-home and try to make their employees come back to the office, people say that the motivation is to raise real estate prices.
I don't follow the logic at all. How would doing this benefit an employer in any way?
people say that the motivation is to raise real estate prices
It's not the sole motivation and it's not even "a" motivation for some businesses.
Basically, wealthy people generally are going to have all sorts of investments. If you own any commercial property then you're going to exercise whatever influence you have to support people continuing to work on premise. That influence is often in the form of shareholders putting pressure on management.
As far as I understand it, there are political interests too. Not just the obvious, ie a city council wanting to see economic movement within the city. Any regular person with a pension likely has money tied up in real estate. Ensuring those pensions maintain value is a concern for governments.