Commercial property is undergoing tech disruption, but not as some believe

by • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Technology

According to a recent report, executives in the commercial property sector have significant reservations about emerging disruptive technologies such as Big Data and predictive analytics, augmented and virtual reality, Blockchain and driverless vehicles, but see huge potential for process automation. Disruption is a strong word.  It conjures up apocalyptic images and radical interventions leaving unrecognisable outcomes in its wake. Big terms like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and big data bring equally big expectations.  For those of us at ground level, it’s hard to see the cumulative impacts of the many changes taking place around us.  It’s also hard not to share the same view expressed above. Future-gazing is nice to a point, but board level conversations like to take signposts from what is actually happening around them as well, and the commercial property sector is no exception. This sector is undergoing profound disruption but not necessarily from Silicon Valley’s headline grabbers.

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City of London on track for record levels of office investment

by • Cities, News, Property

The City of London is defying the doomsday Brexit scenario and on track to reach record levels of office investment in 2017, as Savills anticipates total turnover will hit £12.5 billion – subject to a number of deals currently under offer exchanging or completing before 31st December. This sees total transactions in 2017 doubling the 10-year average (£6.259 billion), in line with the all-time record volume seen in 2014 (£12.6 billion). The real estate advisor suggests the West End market will see £7.155 billion transacted in 2017 bringing total turnover in central London for the year £19.6 billion. Savills says that the weakness of sterling since the EU referendum has boosted the city’s attractions to overseas capital.  This has happened in tandem with a return of UK buyers to the London market. Figures from the firm show office take-up in the City and West End are both above the long-term average while more than a third of the city’s developments are pre-let.

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Hong Kong replaces London as most expensive place in world in which to rent a workstation

by • News, Property, Workplace design

Hong Kong has replaced London’s West End as the most expensive office market in which to accommodate staff, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield. The annual Office Space Across The World report surveys occupancy costs across 215 office markets in 58 countries worldwide. Using proprietary data, it ranks occupancy costs per workstation and workplace densities for newly developed or refurbished office space globally. Limited availability and strong demand from mainland Chinese corporations have pushed Hong Kong costs up 5.5 percent to $27,431. Escalating rents are driving a growing number of multinational corporations to decentralise to lower cost areas.

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Shifts in occupier behaviour and attitudes to real estate pave the way for a workplace revolution

by • News, Property, Technology

The rise of the flexible office is the result of dramatic changes in the way corporate occupiers approach their real estate decisions, and will open up opportunities for landlords able to adapt and respond to these shifts. These are some of the claims from The Flexible Revolution (registration required), a pan-European report from CBRE exploring the flexible office market. Over the past decade the global flexible office market has been growing at an average of 13 percent per annum. Growth rates in EMEA (excluding UK) and APAC have averaged around 20 percent per annum, while the more mature and larger markets of the UK and the USA have seen average growth of 10 percent per annum over the same period. Key European cities like Berlin, Paris and London have all seen strong year-on-year growth of 12 – 21 percent between 2016 and 2017, which is comparable with markets like New York and San Francisco, where the flexible office concept has existed for longer.

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Commercial property sector disconnected from game changing new tech, claims report

by • News, Property, Technology

Executives in the commercial property sector have significant reservations about emerging disruptive technologies such as Big Data and predictive analytics, augmented and virtual reality, Blockchain and driverless vehicles, but see huge potential for process automation according to the Altus Group CRE Innovation Report (registration required). According to the report, which is based on a global survey carried out in September of 400 CRE executives at firms with assets under management of at least US $250 million representing a total of over US $2 trillion, a large majority of executives report their firms have benefited from technology investments made over the past two years. However, when presented with six rapidly emerging disruptive technologies, only a minority of respondents recognised them as having the potential for major disruptive impact.

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Facebook’s new Frank Gehry designed London office includes start-up space

by • Architecture, Case studies, Cities, Property, Technology

 

Facebook has unveiled its new offices in London’s Rathbone Place, with the announcement that it will include a dedicated incubator space for start-ups. In terms of Facebook staff, the office will be home to a diverse range of teams including engineers, developers, marketing and sales teams. The 247,000 sq office, designed by award-winning architect Frank Gehry, includes 7 floors and features a new public square just off Oxford Street called Rathbone Square. In a first for a Facebook office, the new London site will offer incubator space for start-ups, called LDN_LAB, which will invite UK-based start-ups to take part per three month long programmes designed to help kick start and accelerate their businesses. The programme will help start-ups who are focused on creating, building or empowering communities through innovation and technology. Facebook experts from a range of disciplines including engineering, product and partnerships, will share their knowledge, expertise and mentorship as part of the programme.

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Podcast: From office to imaginariums, with Antony Slumbers

by • Podcasts, Premium Content, Property, Technology

In episode 14 of Workplace Matters, I am joined by Antony Slumbers, history of art graduate-cum-proptech entrepreneur, futurist and digital advocate. In a wide-ranging discussion which includes the inevitable advance of computer processing capability and artificial intelligence, Antony explains why the only option for future business success is to embrace our digital future. Making links to how this will impact upon our workplaces, Antony and I explore many of the points he made in this Work&Place article from earlier this year leading to a bold assertion: the office is dead, so it’s time to think differently.

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Government targets 50 percent cut in greenhouse gases from the built environment

by • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

The UK government has set some ambitious targets for construction and the environmental performance of buildings following the announcement of a Sector Deal for the construction sector. The sector deal was an integral part of the Industrial Strategy White Paper published earlier this week. In a statement, Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark revealed more details of the deal supported by £170m of government investment and £250m of match funding from the built environment sector. The announcement sets out ambitious new targets for the built environment and infrastructure including a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases and a third reduction in the costs of construction and whole life costs of buildings.

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Location of workplace matters when it comes to workplace performance

by • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace

Employers can make major performance and productivity improvements by taking a more strategic approach to where they place their people, a new report suggests. Organisations with the closest alignment between their geographical talent footprint and market opportunity tend to be most productive and profitable claims Right people, wrong place?, a new EY report in collaboration with LinkedIn. The report analysed 659 organisations of varied size and scale across 11 sectors and revealed that those that poorly match their workforce to the global sub-sector growth markets are potentially leaving hundreds of millions of dollars of opportunity on the table. Bringing together a combined analysis of current and projected industry market performance from EY with LinkedIn’s insights from more than 530 million members, the report validates and quantifies the value of maximising the alignment between workforce location and market opportunity.

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London office construction declines to three year low

by • Cities, News, Property

The development of new offices in central London has declined, according to the latest London Office Crane Survey by Deloitte Real Estate. Construction activity now totals 12.6 million sq ft, a 9 percent drop since the previous survey (six months ago). The survey reports 25 new office schemes starting construction, adding 1.8 million sq ft into the development pipeline. This is the lowest amount of new space started in over three years and 21 percent below the crane survey average. Refurbishment schemes once again dominate the new starts with 16 offices accounting for 70 percent of the volume. However, refurbishments are generally smaller scale than new-builds so the average size of schemes starting this survey has fallen to 73,000 sq ft, lower than the long-term average of 97,000 sq ft.

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Government unveils Industrial Strategy to boost productivity and wealth

by • News, Property, Technology

The UK government has published its ‘ambitious’ Industrial Strategy, which it claims sets out a long-term vision for how Britain can build on its economic strengths, address its productivity performance, embrace technological change and boost the earning power of people across the UK. With the aim of making the UK the world’s most innovative nation by 2030, the government has committed to investing a further £725 million over the next 3 years in the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) to respond to some of the greatest global challenges and the opportunities faced by the UK. This will include £170 million to ‘transform the construction sector and help create affordable places to live and work that are safer, healthier and use less energy’

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BPF submits real estate sector deal proposal to government

by • News, Property

The British Property Federation (BPF) has announced it has submitted a Sector Deal proposal to government on behalf of the real estate industry. The announcement follows yesterday’s publication of the government’s Industrial Strategy White Paper – and of the first three Sector Deals committing industry and government to achieving the Industrial Strategy’s ambition in partnership. The real estate Sector Deal proposal sets out how the real estate industry underpins the UK’s economic and social wellbeing, and how it will be essential to the delivery of other Sector Deals including construction. The proposal ‘seeks a partnership with government where both sides are working together to maximise the real estate industry’s contribution to the economy, and to creating infrastructure and great places to live, work and relax across the country’.

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