The future means flex

In 2020, we witnessed a paradigm shift in our working patterns and behaviours…

The enforced lockdown brought about individual and collective reflection around our purpose and motivation, as brands, business owners, employees, and global citizens. The methodology of business behaviour was also brought into sharp focus.

We are primed to take advantage of new-found clarity, to redefine much of our lives and establish new patterns of behaviour to benefit many areas of our daily life.

We have entered a period where change is happening more rapidly than previously imagined, and greatly effecting how we see and use commercial property

PC. (pre-Covid) positioning of a product (property) may well have been enough to ensure success.

AC. (after-Covid) data will now need to be studied far more carefully and in real-time, to constantly hone our products to ensure they stay relevant and in line with demand.

This will require the built environment to be augmented with the management tools to actively manage your assets and stay in-tune with your customers, helping predict when and where space may be an issue for those customers, and ensuring you have viable solutions (short and long term) to manage the positive or negative impact that space may be having on both parties in the relationship.

Our overwhelming acceptance of remote working may lead to the dismantling of cities as large employment centres surrounded by residential communities.

For some time, the nirvana of Prof Carlos Moreno’s 15-minute city where everything is within 15 minutes by foot or cycle, has been much vaunted as the antidote to the 90 minute Londoners (and other major city inhabitants) with their daily commute (see Paris Mayor, Anne Hidalgo pioneering work in this field).

With the pace of internet shopping rapidly increasing, and changes to working habits and routines, high streets throughout the UK are already littered with increased vacancy rates.

With such large lease voids and ultimately our streetscapes, this represents considerable challenges to once-bustling commercial centres and business districts of our towns and cities. 

Whilst the importance of the city as a cultural melting point still holds an important place for commerce, city living means making better use of an extra 90 minutes at the beginning and end of each day.

As corporate occupiers repurpose and, in many instances, downsize their offices, there may be an increasing shift towards city-centre living.

At the same time, amenities, which include co-working spaces, will improve markedly in the suburbs, with many choosing to maintain separation between home and work. This increases exponentially with junior staff and interns, where shared living does not allow for a professional or focused working environment.

The future means flex

There is a growing need for occupiers to flex in and out of space to react to economic cycles, to reconfigure it to drive efficiencies and to remain nimble by adapting space to special projects or assignments.

Integrating short-term solutions into their portfolio mix will generate efficiency savings, facilitate  business responsiveness to new opportunities, fuel growth and reduce operational risks.

For institutional owners, the threat is not that core leases will be consigned to history, but that the  market is now more nuanced; ‘space as a service’ requires a combination of offerings – not just in  terms of lease length, but in the level of landlord servicing provided.

And the changes in the workplace aren’t just as a result of Covid. We need to keep in mind the fundamental demographic shifts that are underway as well as the continuing impact of technology that challenges the purpose of a physical office.

• By 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millennials
  The (Millennial) Workplace of the Future Is Almost Here, Inc. Magazine.

• By 2025, 2/3 of Baby Boomers will have retired.
  Ten For Twenty, Avison Young 2020 Forecast.

• Within the next three to five years 30% of most large global companies’ workforces will be insecure in their positions.
  Ten For Twenty, Avison Young 2020 Forecast.

• And traditional white collar office jobs face upheaval from tech advances, just like industry. Within the next 15 years, for example, 36% of roles in the legal sector could be automated.
  The (Millennial) Workplace of the Future Is Almost Here, Inc. Magazine.

So, what does this mean for businesses within the property sector?

How can they ensure they are future facing, responding in a nimble manner to a rapidly changing landscape?

To improve their readiness and position to capitalise on new opportunities as they present themselves, requires a shift in focus from short term use, to a longer term strategy.

…And to do so involves a strategic review of these main components:

People

Who are they and what do they want? What is essential, desirable and motivating? What ‘need state’ can we identify based on the unique opportunity that your location holds?

Purpose

Defining the why behind the what… Why you choose to exist, beyond financial gain.

Your Unique Product (property)

Armed with a narrative that has defined the purpose of your place and with the vision to realise its potential, requires strong leadership and the ability to evaluate all critical decisions against your purpose; if it doesn’t add value and support the overall direction then it doesn’t make the scheme.

Write the script, set the stage, cast the crew, and direct.

It is about directing a series of moving parts that all work in harmony to deliver the performance.