A gathering of eleven leaders in the UK commercial real estate industry, including representatives from GPE, Colliers, LGIM, Aviva, JP Morgan Chase, Workspace Group Plc, RYSE Asset Management and JLL, recently convened for a roundtable discussion at the Ivy Asia Mayfair in London, hosted by HqO. The event “Beyond Square Footage: Crafting Exceptional Real Estate Experiences in a Competitive Market” aimed to explore strategies for creating and delivering exceptional real estate experiences in today’s competitive market.
The Discussion
In 2024, London is witnessing a remarkable expansion in office space, with nearly 10 million square feet being added, a peak not seen in the last twenty years. Despite this growth, the UK faces a paradoxical scenario where overall vacancy rates have hit a 10-year high, projected to reach 9%. This trend underscores the crucial importance of real estate experience in the contemporary market.
Data shows a disconnect: 43% of employees feel socially isolated (Leesman, an HqO company), and many homes currently outperform offices for knowledge work. While 67% of leaders prioritise workplace experience (Gartner), many struggle to define it beyond square footage. The challenge? Bridge the gap between landlord offerings and tenant desires (community, tech, sustainability, etc.). The solution? Collaboration between developers, tenants, and tech providers, leveraging intelligence data to craft unique, data-driven experiences that meet evolving workforce needs. This ensures informed, future-proof real estate investments.
Furthermore, the group dove into the roundtable challenge: redefining tenant experience. The discussion centred around a critical question often overlooked in the commercial real estate landscape: what kind of experience are we truly delivering to tenants? Many developers and landlords haven’t even considered the concept of “tenant experience” beyond square footage and basic amenities. This lack of awareness creates a significant gap – tenants crave vibrant communities, cutting-edge technology, sustainability, or superior design and convenience, but many landlords aren’t sure which, if any, of these experiences their properties offer. This is where the challenge lies. The roundtable emphasised the importance of collaboration between developers, CRE tenants, and technology providers. By leveraging intelligence data and fostering open discussions about what “experience” truly means, this collaboration can help bridge the gap. Together, they can craft unique, data-driven experiences that cater to the evolving needs of the workforce, ensuring real estate investments are not only informed but future-proofed. These aspects significantly influence tenant decisions, making the nature of the offered experience a pivotal element in a highly competitive market. As vacancy rates rise, the need to stand out through exceptional real estate experiences becomes not just beneficial, but essential for success.
The roundtable discussion also tackled these critical questions facing the real estate industry:
– How can real estate developers and landlords innovate to enhance the tenant experience in a market with rising vacancy rates?
– What is experience and how do you know what is needed at the asset, what in challenging market is the most required enhancement
– What role does technology play in differentiating office spaces and attracting tenants in London’s expanding real estate market?
– In light of high vacancy rates, how can sustainability and eco-friendly designs impact tenant attraction and retention in the UK’s real estate sector?
Key Takeaways
This HqO roundtable event provided a valuable platform for industry leaders to share insights and explore strategies for creating and delivering exceptional real estate experiences. The event fostered collaboration and knowledge exchange, highlighting the importance of prioritising tenant needs, embracing technology, and investing in a holistic, experience-driven approach to attract and retain tenants in a competitive market.
The discussion key takeaways included:
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- Simply offering square footage is no longer enough.
- Exceptional real estate experiences are crucial for attracting and retaining tenants.
- Innovation, technology, and a focus on sustainability are key drivers in creating these experiences.
- However some technology was seen as a major obstacle to experience and these should be considered carefully (basically the entire room voiced their hatred of desk booking technology and how it was a barrier to getting people back to work)
- Collaboration fueled by intelligence data is key to navigating the evolving commercial real estate landscape. Developers, CRE tenants, and technology providers must work together to gather and analyse data that goes beyond basic metrics. This intelligence data, encompassing employee surveys, building sensor readings, and access control system information, paints a richer picture of employee needs and preferences. By fostering informed discussions around this data, all stakeholders can collaborate to create targeted amenities, space layouts, and programming that truly resonate with the workforce. This data-driven, collaborative approach ensures real estate investments are not only informed but also future-proofed for the ever-changing work environment.
- there’s a continued focus to hire experience people into RE (not just a 2021-22 thing)
- feedback is still very hard to gather and even harder to analyse
The energy in the room was amazing as the group discussed the impact REX (Real Estate Experience) has within a competitive market. It was an inspiring exchange of ideas, fuelled by diverse perspectives from owners, occupiers, developers, and consultants.
“The ‘Beyond Square Footage’ roundtable was a resounding success,” said Samuel Warren, VP EMEA at HqO. “The exchange of ideas and collaborative spirit among industry leaders reinforces the importance of prioritising exceptional real estate experiences. HqO is proud to be a part of this conversation and remains dedicated to empowering stakeholders to build thriving communities in the future of work.”
