Office building market: collaborate to win

In our first guest blog post, AECOM’s Michael Skelton sheds some light on the opportunities identified in Victoria’s office building market.

We are witnessing an explosion in the use of data to justify decision making. Bringing together information that previously existed in silos and linking it to other pieces of knowledge has given us the opportunity to discover insights about markets that would not have previously been possible.

How does this relate to the property market and more specifically, to Victoria’s office market?

Sustainability Victoria’s ‘The Next Wave’ report by Davis Langdon, an AECOM company, pieces together a complete view of Victoria’s existing office market from many separate data sources. This view gives decision makers a more refined approach to improving the performance of buildings.

Considering strategies based on a building’s age, size, grade, location, energy and water performance, owner and tenant types, heritage listing and many other features, allows customisation of programs for the right part of the office market, maximising engagement. For example, ‘The Next Wave’ identifies municipalities that have similar profiles of building types within their office markets. This represents an opportunity for local councils to work together and identify projects, incentives, education and awareness programs and will ensure that efforts are not duplicated and may enable more far-reaching impacts.

Buildings owners could also benefit in a similar way. Knowing how your building compares to others in the same market can lead to new insights to better position your building or opportunities to join with other owners facing similar challenges.

Yet, when it comes to building performance refurbishments, tenants can be a help or a hindrance, depending on the structure of their lease and any other motivations.

Understanding the distribution of tenancy types in your market and the associated drivers and barriers for refurbishments can help landlords start the right conversation with tenants.

At the heart of all this research lies a single purpose: get better performance from our existing office buildings while also getting the best performance for the dollars we invest.

By understanding the Victorian market more precisely, we will also have greater confidence in targeting future initiatives and align the right people so that collaboration can occur.

Note: Building data is segmented in ‘The Next Wave’ report to protect the identity of individual buildings.

Guest blogger in focus: As an AECOM business integration and market strategist, Michael Skelton is devoted to improving collaboration, open data and greater expression of big ideas for cities.

Connect with Michael on Twitter: @MikSkelton

Image credit: Oatsy40 via Flickr Creative Commons