Thought Leadership

The novel coronavirus outbreak began in mid-Dec 2019 in the seventh-largest city of China - Wuhan, home to over 11 million people and the capital of Hubei province. The first suspected cases were reported on 31 December 2019, and to date, over 40,000 infections have been confirmed with a death toll of over 900. While scientists do not know how lethal the new coronavirus is, they agreed the virus is spreading more like influenza than Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (“SARS”) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (“MERS”). 

In this challenging time as COVID-19 impacts workplace operations globally, we break down how occupiers can engage with flexible workspace operators, as both a near-term business continuity solution and longer-term way of working for enterprises. We also set out steps for flexible workspace operators on how to maintain operations and protect the health and wellbeing of members at this time.

For commercial real estate, the price declines needed to inspire buyers to come back to the market need not be as extreme as the 22% drop in the RCA CPPI seen from ’07 to ’10 during the Global Financial Crisis. Consider the office market in Manhattan in 2017. The top of the bidder pool disappeared as Chinese investors stepped away from the market and office sales plummeted as buyers and sellers wondered where the bottom would be found. A 20 bps change in cap rates, though, was enough to inspire buyers to come off the sidelines.

Since each VPO is expected to conduct an examination of a member prior to issue of a certificate of practice, the Registration Authority may recognise the examination conducted by the VPO, dispensing with the need for the Valuation Examination in terms of Rule 5(1) (a) to be conducted by the Registration Authority.