Thought Leadership

Private assets face demands for transparency amid greater interest from investors seeking to understand risks, performance and how these investments compare to public securities. We speak with Peter Shepard, Head of Fixed Income, Multi-Asset Class and Private Asset Research and Brian Schmid, Global Head of Product Management and Applied Research at Burgiss.

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.