South: JLL analyses how digital disruption will transform real estate

JLL’s new report series ‘Workspace, reworked: ride the wave of tech driven change’, has launched this week, with two reports exploring the impact of technology, data and digital disruption on work spaces and real estate investment strategies.

The series focuses on the office sector over the next 15 years, looking at how occupiers, developers and investors will need to view real estate differently and adapt in order to enhance investment returns and create work spaces that are fit for purpose in a rapidly changing, highly-connected world.

Key insights include:

• Connectivity (fast and resilient) is fast becoming the fourth utility and will drive more location decisions
• Real estate portfolios are more likely to be built around core hubs, and will comprise fewer locations, thanks to the combination of a changing workforce and greater connectivity
• Emergence of new types of ‘platinum prime’ space – scarce Grade A, top tier location space designed to suit the behemoths of the new business world
• Growing cohort of super-dynamic assets catering primarily to start-ups, that are flexible, modular and built to suit fluctuating business cycles
• The Internet of things and the next generation of smart buildings will become the vehicles to manage productivity, sustainability and user experience
• Emergence of a new asset class, characterised by partnerships that marry equity with expertise, bridging the gap between institutional leasing and co-working
• Seismic shift in demand for co-working space – up to 30% of a corporate portfolio will comprise flexible space by 2030.

Guy Grainger, CEO, EMEA, JLL, said: “Real estate, which is typically fixed and immovable, is traditionally slow to respond to change – but technology is not. Flexibility and adaptability are more key than ever. Regardless of whether we’re talking to investors, corporate tenants or developers, people and technology are at the core of everything – it is time for the workspace to adapt to 21st century needs.”

James Brown, head of research, EMEA, JLL, added: “We are witnessing incredible social, cultural and organisational change. Technology is altering how and where we work and, crucially, is allowing our responses to our environment to be tracked, measured and analysed more than ever before. In our reports, we’ve identified the ways in which these changes are giving occupiers, developers and investors strong cues about how their approaches to real estate will need to change practically in the future. New opportunities will emerge and those who are able to respond to change will reap the rewards.”