There are at least some reasons to be optimistic about the UK’s tech sector post Brexit

There are at least some reasons to be optimistic about the UK’s tech sector post Brexit

by • Comment, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Making detailed predictions about the economic consequences of Brexit has proved a mug’s game many time over the past couple of years. The most accurate summation of what is happening might be ‘mixed’. Most recently, a report from the CBI has highlighted the resilience of many sectors while bemoaning a lack of skills in the economy. Meanwhile former Commercial Secretary to the Treasury Lord O’Neill also recently conceded that the UK economy had been more robust than he had expected following the Brexit vote, which he attributed primarily to the thriving world economy. An argument almost immediately dismissed by the economist Ruth Lea writing for the LSE, who put forward a more nuanced and mixed explanation. The same picture of tempered resilience is also evident in specific sectors, and especially those that were seen as the most likely to feel the consequences of the Brexit vote, including London’s crucial tech sector.

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Enter the MIPIM bandwagon, towed by pink elephants

Enter the MIPIM bandwagon, towed by pink elephants

by • Comment, Property, Technology

The old adage “once you spot a bandwagon, it’s probably too late to jump on” was certainly true at this year’s MIPIM if only for the increase in journalists sent by the national press (allegedly) hoping to catch a glimpse of men behaving badly and weaving tales of excess. Whilst the message of  #TimesUp was heard loud and clear in the property world after the recent expose at the Presidents Club, the reality is the hedonistic opulence actually came to an end in 2009 after the global crash. That was the year that the property market realised they needed to do things differently and it was the beginning of putting people first. But it takes time for thoughts to turn to actions and reality, and a number of senior women that I spoke to observed that what we are now seeing are results of change and a drive to continue that change.

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Vienna ranks highest for quality of living, but emerging cities doing more to attract mobile talent

Vienna ranks highest for quality of living, but emerging cities doing more to attract mobile talent

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace

Cities in emerging markets, though challenged by economic and political turmoil, are catching up with top ranking cities following decades of investing in infrastructure, recreational facilities and housing in order to attract talent and multinational businesses, finds Mercer’s 20th annual Quality of Living survey. Meanwhile, many of Europe’s cities still offer the world’s highest quality of living and continue to remain attractive destinations for expatriates on assignment, despite economic volatility due to uncertainty around Brexit and increased political volatility in the region overall. Vienna tops the ranking for the 9th year running and is followed by Zurich (2), Auckland and Munich in joint 3rd place. In 5th place Vancouver completes the top five and is the highest ranking city in North America. Singapore (25) and Montevideo (77) are the highest-ranking cities in Asia and Latin America respectively.  London – the highest ranked UK city – scores top marks in areas like access to public transport, and the variety and quality of theatres and restaurants, but has lower scores for air pollution and traffic congestion.

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Future cityscape will feature driverless transport, smart buildings and co-working says JLL

Future cityscape will feature driverless transport, smart buildings and co-working says JLL

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

Future cityscape will feature driverless transport, smart buildings and co-working says JLL

Wi-Fi trees, driverless transport, smart buildings and co-working will be commonplace in 2040 predicts a report (registration required) published by JLL that outlines the ideal cityscape by 2040. The report incorporates a transformation framework aimed at enabling real estate businesses to adapt and thrive in a future city. According to the report, “The Transformation Framework”, the ideal cityscape in 2040 will have adapted to the trends driving the real estate sector over the next 20 years and will include co-working and living space, smart and healthy buildings, Wi-Fi trees, reverse vending machines, driverless transport and multi-generational housing as standard. To create the future cityscape, JLL asked some of the UK’s leading real-estate owners, occupiers, developers and investors what they thought the ideal city would look like in 2040, while taking into account the seven trends that JLL predict will influence real estate and infrastructure globally over the next two decades. These trends included tech innovation, urbanisation, land & resource scarcity, the low carbon economy, demographic & workplace change, health & wellness and transparency & social value.

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Seven great workplace stories that have inspired and intrigued us over the past week

Seven great workplace stories that have inspired and intrigued us over the past week

by • Facilities management, Features, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Do people really get promoted to their level of incompetence?

Emotional Intelligence: an integrative meta-analysis

Male and female bosses share the same “masculine” personality traits

How to read less news but be more informed

The Jurassic Park problem – tech and ethics

The 911 transcripts of times Apple employees walked into glass walls

Landlords woo office tenants with worker perks

Women working in construction sector three times more likely to miss out on promotion

Women working in construction sector three times more likely to miss out on promotion

by • Architecture, Facilities management, Legal news, News, Property, Workplace

Women working in construction sector three times more likely to miss out on promotion

The built environment still has some way to go to achieve gender parity a new report suggests, as women in construction are paid up to 45 percent less than men and are three times more likely to miss out on promotion than men due to perceived gender discrimination. According to the survey by Randstad of more than 5,500 construction workers and 540 employers across all job functions and levels – 75 percent of those passed over for a more senior role were women compared to 25 percent men. The findings  suggests women in the industry typically are not being given the same opportunities to progress as their male counterparts even though almost every respondent (93 percent) said having a female manager either wouldn’t affect their way of working or would in fact have a positive impact. (more…)

Data, AI and the commercial property sector – what’s the connection?

Data, AI and the commercial property sector – what’s the connection?

by • Comment, Property, Technology

The property industry is not the first to be permeated by artificial intelligence, and it is far from being the last. Machine learning is working its way into various sectors, but it’s proving to be of great use particularly in the property sector, providing a helping hand for humans to help reach their professional goals. One of the ways in which AI is being used successfully within the property industry is to analyse data more efficiently. This is particularly significant, as collection and analysis of data can often be time and resource-consuming and difficult to navigate; with the help of intelligent software, however, it is easier to infer the “story” or direction that a batch of data is pointing in, and consequently come to a clearer conclusion or evaluation.

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Commercial property sector worth £4.8bn to Scottish economy

Commercial property sector worth £4.8bn to Scottish economy

by • News, Property

The Scottish commercial property sector contributes almost £4.8 billion to the Scottish economy and supports more than 92,000 jobs, according to a new report. Compiled by the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute under commission by the Scottish Property Federation (SPF) its findings include a comprehensive look at the potential economic impact of new commercial work. In total, the commercial real estate element of Scotland’s construction industry has a direct impact of around £2.4bn to Scotland’s economy, however taking into account the additional spill-over effects of the industry, the sector is estimated to have a total impact of around £4.8bn.

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Europe continues to attract high levels of commercial property investment

Europe continues to attract high levels of commercial property investment

by • News, Property

Research released by Knight Frank in the European Quarterly, Commercial Property Outlook (Q3 2017) highlighted how 2017 European investment volumes were on course to beat those of 2016. In fact, a total of €47.4 billion was invested in European commercial property in the third quarter (Q3) 2017; a 13 percent increase on the same quarter of 2016. A new report from commercial property firm Savoystewart.co.uk claims to uncover the countries attracting the most interest in investment in Europe. In analysing the figures, Savoystewart.co.uk found several countries experienced a spike in commercial investment in 2017. Most notably in Finland, with a total investment of €5.6 billion, Q1-Q3 – a rise of 121.60 percent on figures from 2016.  Hungary (89.90 percent), Romania (73.50 percent), the Czech Republic (43.30 percent) and Netherlands (41.70 percent) followed, with considerable increases measured.

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Seven workplace stories that made us think this week

Seven workplace stories that made us think this week

by • Features, Flexible working, Property, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

white collar workers flee the workplaceIBM gives services staff until 2019 to get agile

White collar workers are fleeing their desks to craft a life

The future of real estate tech and how we got here

McMindfulness: Buddhism as sold to you by neoliberals

Why our jobs matter more now than ever before

A psychologist noticed this cool chair illusion in his workplace

How to think about artificial intelligence in real estate

Prospects for UK commercial property continue to improve, claims report

Prospects for UK commercial property continue to improve, claims report

by • News, Property

facilities managementThe latest edition of the Investment Property Forum’s (IPF) UK commercial real estate consensus report claims that the commercial property sector’s sentiment for the current year continues to improve. In its latest report, IPF said the “outlook for 2018 has improved over the three months since the last survey” was conducted, with average rental and capital value growth rates increasing in virtually all sectors. It claims that the rental value growth average forecast has risen to 0.8 percent from 0.4 percent three months ago. Also, the average capital value growth rate has now increased to -0.2 percent from -0.7 percent in November with industrial growth now expected to be 4.0 percent from 2.7 percent in the last survey.

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Modest growth in UK construction activity is driven by commercial office projects

Modest growth in UK construction activity is driven by commercial office projects

by • Facilities management, News, Property

Modest growth in UK construction activity driven by commercial office projects

Construction activity in the UK has stabilised after a prolonged period of decline, according to the latest JLL and Glenigan UK Commercial Construction Activity Index. Key findings for the last quarter of 2017 show an overall increase in construction activity for the second consecutive quarter, driven mainly by commercial office developments. This follows overall growth of 7.9 percent in the third quarter of 2017, halting a sharp decline seen since mid-2015. Highlighting movement across different sectors, growth in office construction was up 11.2 percent to £4.5 billion, education (up 12.0 percent to £3.5 billion) and community (up 19.9 percent to £0.6 billion) sectors.

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