Thought Leadership

Occupiers adopt remote-working concept

At the end of the first quarter of 2020, the country was forced to go into a complete lockdown of business activity due to the pandemic.In March 2020, workplaces were shut, and employees were working from home for the first few weeks. By May 2020, while workplaces had begun to re-open partially with easing lockdown restrictions, not all companies were asking their employees to return to office. Further, we are still witnessing a large proportion of employees working from home. The trend of ‘Work-from-home’ and ‘Work-from-anywhere’ has gained significance thereafter and occupiers have displayed openness to remote working. The poll results suggest that a majority (60%) of occupiers foresee about 21% to 40% of their workforce to be working from a non-office location over the next 12-24 months. However, as occupiers are revisiting their density plans in existing offices to enable a safe return for employees, we expect a gradual revival of the sector and office absorption should start showing signs of recovery in H2 2021. We believe that occupiers will likely resort to a ‘hub & spoke’ model, offering flexibility to employees to work from anywhere or near clients. Hence, the indications are that flexible workspaces will likely gain significance in such a scenario.

The Retirement Census is an annual data collection proces conducted amongst Australian retirement village operators. It covers retirement villages governed by state Retirement Villages Acts, rather than other forms of seniors’ living accommodation.
The 2020 Retirement Census covers FY20 (July 2019 June 2020). From March 2020, Australian businesses across all sectors have been significantly impacted by COVID 19 induced government restrictions on operations, employment, and service provision. Participation in the Retirement Census is entirely voluntary, meaning participating operators change year to year. Comparison with previous year figures should be considered with this in mind.

To view the cenus please click below:

This presents many opportunities for readers of The Wealth Report, whether it’s the investment potential of the global demographic trend towards longer, healthier lives – explored in detail in our Big Interview on page 10 – or the ability of forward-thinking property investors and landlords to capitalise on demand for “healthy” workspaces that boost productivity, which we discuss on page 76. In parallel with this, “giving something back” is increasingly important to the UHNWI community, and on page 86 we profile three fascinating philanthropists whose work benefits a diverse range of causes.

A central pillar of The Wealth Report, the results of our proprietary Wealth Sizing Model – unveiled on page 18 – reveal that wealth continues to be created around the world, especially in Asia’s economic hubs. This growth in private capital is having a noticeable impact on real estate markets globally.

Prime retail markets were severely disrupted by the pandemic with rental movements from -41.6% (Jakarta) to +2.6% (Guangzhou). In Jakarta, with strict social distancing measures and restrictions on mall opening hours, landlords were pressured to provide rental relief, and many of them slashed rents by half. In China, retail footfall recovered, and rents increased by 2.6% and 0.5% in Guangzhou, Shanghai, while softening by 2.8% and 1.5% in Beijing and Shenzhen. Vietnam’s retail markets were resilient with total retail sales of goods and services up 5.6% QoQ in Q4/2020. Rents in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi increased by 2.1% and 0.1% respectively. 

The logistics market has proven to be highly resilient and will remain a key focus in the region, with rental movements ranging from -0.4% (Shanghai) to +7.3% (Singapore). The pandemic accelerated a shift to online retail, and logistics assets were the major beneficiary. In Singapore, most warehouses are at capacity and some spillover demand has been seen in traditional factory space. In China, driven by rising domestic consumption and e-commerce, demand for modern logistics facilities is expanding rapidly. Beijing (+0.7%), Shanghai (-0.4%), Shenzhen (+2.4%) and Guangzhou (+3.0%) all entered an early upswing.