In the ever-evolving corporate real estate sector, organizations are battling with priorities that are constantly changing and new trends that are influencing their approach.
In this blog post, we are going to share with you some insights of a global study conducted by IBI Research Solutions and its partners on Smart Building Technologies where we examine the nuances of the latest developments, including how to optimize building operations, the increasing importance of sustainability and how digitization affects performance.
1. Prioritizing Building Operations
Optimising building operations is still primarily driven by cost concerns that have emerged as the top priority for a significant number of decision-makers in the real estate and facilities management industries. construction consider prioritizing building operations to be the least important.
However, 48% in the retail sector and 35% in the public sector emphasize its importance. While cost reduction was the primary goal in 2021 & 2022, its dominance has decreased, suggesting that real estate is now seen as a critical enabler of business performance rather than just a cost sink.
2. Decarbonization Gains Prominence
This year represents a substantial compared to 2022. firms prioritized decarbonization, and a great number of them consider it as a top priority. Decarbonization is highly prioritized in industries with higher carbon intensity such as transportation & logistics (58%) basic materials & utilities (38%) and construction & engineering (36%). However, 43% of educators and 52% of those in the media & telecommunications industries regard it as their least important goal.
3. Buildings as a Driver of Productivity
Globally, decision-makers in the real estate industry are actively redesigning and enhancing workspaces to conform to new work procedures. In our study, we found that workplace improvements are highly prioritized by , indicating a strong emphasis on working conditions. Workplace improvement is significant across industries as evidenced by the fact that only a small number of the surveyed companies ranked it as their least important objective.
4. Regional Focus
Building resilience is becoming more & more important to decision makers in North America; the percentage of real estate companies who consider resilience as their top goal increased from. The increasing frequency of climate related disasters in the United States is probably the cause of this surge. In spite of this, resilience is still regarded as the least important goal by 28% of real estate managers.
5. Footprint Optimization Balancing Act
Although portfolio footprint optimization is rarely the primary goal, it is nevertheless a crucial area of attention, especially when it comes to the most common second and third priorities. Even though many are trying to undo the shift to hybrid work models, respondents from the technology, media and telecoms sector (65%) and banks, insurance, and services (66%) give footprint optimization the highest priority.
6. Influence of Sustainability, Digitization, and Hybrid Work
The other important trends that continue to influence the corporate real estate landscape are sustainability, digitization and the growing influence of hybrid working.
1. Sustainability and Digitization
Sustainability and occupant experience are the key trends impacting corporate real estate strategies. Particularly, sustainability has a greater influence in North America ( , demonstrating regional differences in maturity. Businesses are using technology more and more in their strategic planning to take advantage of chances for cost & efficiency savings.
2. Hybrid Work’s Persistent Impact
Even though flexible & hybrid working policies have developed over the last 2 years, the move to hybrid working is still a significant trend influencing real estate strategies. Managers of facilities and real estate are always evaluating and modifying their spaces to make office spaces that are in line with the modern realities of work. Remarkably, a in the manufacturing sector believe that hybrid work has a significant influence on their overall real estate strategy formulation.
7. Market Trends Impacting Real Estate Strategies
1. Hybrid Working Impact
This popular trend of hybrid working is revealed to have a significant impact for 41% of the surveyed companies, while a moderate impact is noted by another 30%. However, for the industries that require employees to work from office, such as manufacturing, healthcare and basic materials & utilities, hybrid working has less impact.
2. Other Influential Trends
The digitization of real estate and facilities management have a , according to of the companies that we have surveyed believe that focusing on employee’s productivity, health and wellbeing is significantly impactful.
Final Word
The intersection of sustainability, digitization, and the continuous influence of hybrid working highlights the dynamic nature of corporate real estate strategies. Organizations that want to establish a productive and sustainable work environment that meet changing business requirements must adjust to these trends.
