Search Results for: office

Record office take up in Edinburgh last year, boosted by burgeoning tech sector

Record office take up in Edinburgh last year, boosted by burgeoning tech sector

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

Mint building in Edinburgh Demand for office space in Scotland’s three largest cities pushed overall take-up beyond 2m sq ft last year, aided by a solid final quarter of occupational deals in Aberdeen and Glasgow, and an all-time record year for Edinburgh. Scotland’s offices market in 2017 reach ed2.4 million sq ft, 14 percent above the 10 year average, according to the latest Scottish Office Spotlight from Savills. In Edinburgh (city centre and wider market) office take-up amounted to a record 1.1 million sq ft boosted by the ongoing growth of tech in the city. According to data from Stack Overflow, the Scottish capital saw a 19 percent increase in data scientists employed in the city centre over the course of 2017. Activity places further pressure on supply with only 220,000 sq ft of Grade A now available which Savills suggests will push top rents to £34 per sq ft in 2018. Keith Dobson, director in the business space agency team at Savills in Edinburgh, says: “The soon to be completed 40,000 sq ft office scheme at 2 Semple Street will ease pent up demand come Q2 2018, whilst The Mint Building and Capital Square will complete in 2019 and 2020 respectively.”

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Workers prize standard of technology over latest office design when moving jobs

Workers prize standard of technology over latest office design when moving jobs

by • News, Technology, Workplace

Over half of UK workers (53 percent) say that the standard of technology is a key consideration for accepting a new job role and more than 1 in 3 (37 percent) would decline a job based on poor hardware alone, claims a new survey. The survey of over 2,000 British adults carried out by gadgets and technology e-tailer, LaptopsDirect.co.uk found that having the latest technology was valued more than other office perks, such as flexible working (45 percent), the working environment/decor (39 percent) and staff discounts (33 percent). Nearly a quarter of respondents (74 percent) overall, believe technology makes them more productive at work, with workers in marketing valuing technology the highest, with 84 percent of the votes, followed by those in creative and photographic (81 percent), information and communications (78 percent), professional services (73 percent) and education (71 percent).

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Rent falls due to Brexit and concerns about oversupply of serviced offices in London

Rent falls due to Brexit and concerns about oversupply of serviced offices in London

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

There have been 18 months of faltering net effective rents within the commercial office market in the Capital since the Brexit referendum, with ten of the 18 Central London office submarkets monitored in Cluttons’ latest London Office Market Outlook report registering rent falls in the final quarter of 2017, buoyed by additional incentives such as contributions to fit out costs and even delayed completions becoming commonplace in many locations.  The report also raises concerns about the potential for an oversupply of serviced offices within the Capital. However, despite this and a perception that Central London offices are currently fully prices or possibly over-priced, by both occupiers and domestic investors, London remains a resilient city, continuing to attract high volumes of overseas capital. Employment growth is of course expected to be influenced by both the levels of GDP growth during 2018 and the Brexit divorce proceedings, which in turn will affect rental values. But says the report, aside from concerns over Brexit, there is no evidence from recruitment agencies to suggest a current, or planned exodus of finance and banking professionals from the City.

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Plans to develop 2 million sq. ft. of office space in South East England announced

Plans to develop 2 million sq. ft. of office space in South East England announced

by • News, Property

Property developer John Baker, formerly of Baker Lorenz, has launched a new venture to develop a series of new business districts in South East commuter towns and outer London boroughs.  The John Baker Group is working in partnership with building and civil engineering contractor Sir Robert McAlpine on the £2bn project which will see the delivery of some 2 million sq. ft. of new office space across the South East. The joint venture, called The Commercial Parks Group, has already acquired £20m worth of property in Crawley, Haywards Heath and Bromley in order to create a series of major business hubs.

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Financial companies learning to better utilise office space to attract right talent

Financial companies learning to better utilise office space to attract right talent

by • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

Nasdaq offices in PhiladelphiaFinancial services organisations are reducing the amount of commercial office space they require as they adopt more flexible work styles. This is according to a new report from HOK’s US team, The New Financial Workplace, an investigation into the threats and challenges facing the financial services industry, with a special focus on how new technologies like cryptocurrency, biometrics and blockchain are disrupting the sector. Financial services companies are being challenged by the emerging fintech industry, says the report, which is projected to grow to $8 billion in 2018. These traditional companies must adopt the cultures and workplace design practices of the technology industry to stay ahead.

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Public sector and flexible workspaces drive record office uptake

Public sector and flexible workspaces drive record office uptake

by • News, Property

A new report from GVA Grimley claims that the commercial property markets in the UK’s major cities outside London enjoyed a record breaking final quarter to 2017. According to its Big Nine report, analysing the office occupier markets of key UK regional cities, total take-up for the year amounted to over 10 million sq ft for the first time, well over the 9.5 million sq ft. witnessed at the peak of the market in 2015. The record level of take-up was underpinned by significant lettings to the public sector, in particular the Government Property Unit (GPU), as well as the continuing exponential growth of the serviced office and coworking sector.

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Flexible and coworking offices to account for ten percent of UK property market by 2027

Flexible and coworking offices to account for ten percent of UK property market by 2027

by • Coworking, News, Property

Demand for flexible workspace including coworking space soared across the UK during 2017, according to a report from Cushman & Wakefield. The study of the rapidly growing market also claims that WeWork is already the largest single corporate occupier of office space in London, with only the public sector exceeding its scale. In addition, the report also claims that WeWork has taken up more space in London’s key commercial property districts than any other occupier since 2012. According to the report, WeWork has taken up more than twice as much space as Google, which leased 1.3m sq ft over the five-year period, while Amazon and Deutsche Bank leased just over 1 m sq ft and 0.9 m sq ft.

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People who work in an open plan office feel worse and are less satisfied

People who work in an open plan office feel worse and are less satisfied

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The ongoing debate about the impact of open plan offices on people’s wellbeing and productivity continues to divide opinion. While there is a large amount of data from the likes of Leesman Index and workplace expert Nigel Oseland to suggest that an open plan office is the best solution when applied in the right way and right context, a new study from Karlstad University claims the opposite. The more co-workers that share of a workplace, the less satisfied employees are, and the more difficult they think it is to work collaboratively.

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Demand for office space in Central London continues to grow steadily but falls elsewhere

Demand for office space in Central London continues to grow steadily but falls elsewhere

by • News, Property

A new study from commercial property advisors Savoy Stewart based on UK government data claims that demand for office space in Central London has continued to grow at a steady rate for a number of years, but that the trend is not always matched elsewhere in the UK, including for areas on the outskirts of the capital. The report, based on an analysis of data from the Valuation Office Agency, covers the period from 2000 to 2016. It found that the total floorspace of 21,092,000 square metres in Central London accounts for nearly one quarter of the total office floorspace in England and Wales (89,037,000 square metres) and more than twice the total floorspace of the top 10 office hotspots outside London combined.

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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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Third of workers say office culture deters them from taking proper breaks

by • News

 

A prevailing culture against taking time away from work leaves workers in a third (33 percent) of offices reluctant to take a proper break, claims a new survey. The research, conducted by One Poll on behalf of Nestlé Professional, claims that 13 percent of office workers failed to take any sort of break during an average working day and 19 percent only took time out for lunch. Despite this however, 97 percent of office workers say taking time out of the working day to have a break would make them feel more positive about their work or more organised in the way they work. Meanwhile, 73 percent of respondents indicated that having a break makes them feel better able to solve problems or handle their work load more easily. The research claims that when it comes to time away from the desk, it appears that ‘10 minutes is all you need’, with more than a third of office workers (37 percent) taking breaks of between 6-10 minutes on average.

Over half of workers say they are more productive working from home than a chilly office

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Chilly offices mean that over half (57 percent) of office workers say they’d be more productive working from home when the weather gets colder. Their main reason is that too many workplaces (50 percent) do not handle weather complaints effectively. According to Office Genie’s survey of 1,105 British office workers, only 6 percent of employers encourage staff to work remotely in the colder weather. Bosses are also reluctant to let employees work flexibly instead of freeze, with only 16 percent of companies adopting flexible working patterns in the colder months. Even simple provisions such as supplying additional heaters are not in place in 70 percent of offices – failing to comply to the government’s Health and Safety Executive’s advice. Of the 1,105 office workers we surveyed, 50% said complaints about office temperatures aren’t dealt with effectively by management. And while HSE guidelines state workplaces shouldn’t dip below 16°C but when we asked workers their ideal office temperature, 20°C was the resounding answer.

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