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Rating Talking Heads: May

The Future of the Office

This event runs as an informal discussion with a small panel of leading and informed practitioners extracting the nuances from the monthly topic. They discuss practical issues that arise, with participants in the meeting being encouraged to listen, join in, ask questions and share comments.

Module Duration: 1 hour 1 minute

Recorded: 18/05/2022

Areas covered

Please note there are no slides accompanying this recording. 

The way we use offices has changed. 

COVID has clearly been a factor – there was a time during the pandemic when many even questioned whether offices had lost their purpose entirely. But to an extent this evolution of the office was evident well before lockdown and perhaps COVID was the catalyst rather than the cause. 

Whether it’s move towards flexibility, employees embracing a better work life better, the need to respond to the ESG agenda or simply landlords looking to stand out in an increasingly crowded market, the office of the 2022 looks a bit different. 

And we as valuers need to grapple with how that change might affect our approach to rating valuation

During this Talking Heads discussion, we will try to grapple with a few of the key questions:

  • What does a modern office look like? 
  • Unit of Assessment who is in control? A move towards flexibility and implications for unit of assessment
  • Dealing with landlord provided amenity
  • Re-purposing space
  • Vacancy/S65(5)/Flexibility
  • Should a re-purposing of offices equate to a repurposing of values? - valuation implications and rent devaluation
  • Landlord provided amenity
  • Different types of accommodation/intensity of occupation/density
  • Co-working (in co-living)
  • Affordable Office Space: can rating valuation adequately deal with “affordable” workplaces and live/work developments?
  • Impact on 3rd parts hereditaments in the vicinity
  • How do you value the “green credentials”?
  • Should London and major regional cities be treated as special cases?
  • The fragility of the market - what happens if millions of (alleged) surplus square feet come to market? Is there any market for second hand space?

May's Talking Heads