Technological advancements, with their seemingly revolutionary effects on real estate markets, are making corporations in the Asia Pacific region increasingly aware of their need to take action now to restructure their operations around new technology, according to CBRE Research’s inaugural report, Work_It: Technology/Workplace/Jobs. While 75 percent of survey participants think technology is driving significant change in business, only 60 percent feel confident about being able to respond to those changes.
Here are some of the key findings:
- Location is no longer everything: Technological innovation means location need not serve as a major determinant of where business is conducted, given the availability of human capital is changing locational preferences.
- Technology puts people at the center of the workplace: The shift toward tech-enabled workplaces is focusing greater attention on improving the end-user experience. Fifty-three percent of occupier respondents want their workplace environment to be more customized to adapt to their needs.
- Mobility is rewriting office demand: The vast majority of occupier respondents, 86 percent, think mobility is the primary tech enablement in the workplace because it allows employees greater flexibility in how, when and where they work. This, in turn, will improve staff satisfaction and comfort as more and more companies create office environments that account for the hold mobile working is taking across the Asia Pacific.
- Landlords are the enablers of change: Occupier demands are driving the changing workplace environment, with 84 percent of landlords expecting tech innovation to create a rise in smart buildings. And landlords must partner closely with tenants at the planning stage when developing smart buildings to gauge the required features and technology needed. The process of incorporating technology in new buildings will be relatively straightforward, but more challenging when retrofitting older properties. And while most new office developments in Asia are speculative and do not have anchor tenants as a result, CBRE Research suggests landlords proactively implement basic features to attract and retain tenants, and build-in greater flexibility in these office assets so occupiers may implement their own technology.
The bottom line: Institutional investors must be proactive as new technologies challenge the traditional dictates of the importance of location in real estate and increase the influence of employee satisfaction on their real estate decision-making process.
