Knowledge Hub

Focusing on three key aspects, Engage, Evolve and Accelerate, the report provides real estate strategies being made by some of the leading global companies to strengthen processes, build resilience, and meet complex needs, with the aim to enrich the workplace experience.

During this time of heightened uncertainty, this report provides potential real estate strategies with recommendations for occupiers to:

• Engage: Preparing workplaces and workforces for change
• Evolve: Meeting future space needs and the demands of a hybrid workforce
• Accelerate: Applying technology to advance change and drive performance

Key highlights

• Across industries, occupiers are in the process of reassessing their current office footprint to determine the most optimal mix for their employees.
• More than 65% of workers are seeking more in-person time with their teams, while 70% of workers want flexible work options to continue.
• 66% of business decision-makers are considering redesigning physical spaces to better accommodate hybrid work environments.
• The growing urgency to attract and retain talent is prompting companies to consider alternative workplace solutions and new locations.
• Flex space has been brought to the forefront by the hybrid working model and has helped occupiers optimize costs and ensure employee flexibility.
• Integration of smart technology, digital infrastructure and smart facilities can help attract tenants and achieve greater operational efficiency, reduce energy consumption and higher customer retention.
• Companies across the globe are investing ESG and DEI initiatives, including green design, tech-enabled features that promote higher health & safety, wellbeing amenities, and inclusive workplace environments.
• Demand for green certified buildings will continue to rise as occupiers continue to seek eco-friendly buildings that meet environmental, energy, and health standards in their design, construction, and performance.

Download the Report Read More

As the Asia Pacific region exits the pandemic and business activity returns to normal, corporate occupiers are placing more emphasis on employee productivity and on increasing office utilisation. With workplace transformation underway, there is strong demand to adapt and “build a better office” to meet the fast-evolving needs of employees and senior management. Additionally, occupiers should be actively identifying new opportunities and strategies to future-proof their portfolios. CBRE’s 2023 Asia Pacific Office Occupier Sentiment Survey, which features insights from more than 130 corporate real estate executives in the region, from more than 80 multinational and domestic companies, delves deeper into the future of work and the changing role of the office.Key findings include: 

• Policy on hybrid working is tightening 
  • 68% of C-suites are focusing on increasing office attendance or improving work efficiency
  • 66% have policy enforcement on office attendance, including performance and financial consequences
     
• Companies are future-proofing their portfolio 
  • 44% expect their CRE portfolio to grow in the next three years
  • Public transportation access, onsite F&B and sustainable building features are the most desired building features
     
• ‘Flight-to-green’ is becoming the next norm 
  • 64% want to expand into ESG-certified buildings
  • 47% want to include data sharing in green leases
     
• Demand for a more refined workplace is increasing 
  • 48% have adopted flexible seating; this is expected to increase to 80% by 2025
  • Increasing demand for focus space and small-sized meeting rooms

This report was originally published in https://www.cbre.com/insights/reports/asia-pacific-major-report-2023-asia-pacific-office-occupier-sentiment-survey

Download the Report Read More

As a specialist real estate investor, Cohen & Steers has long viewed executive compensation and stock ownership as a critical pillar of governance, underpinning longer-term alignment with investors and broader stakeholders of the listed REIT sector across Asia-Pacific.

Managed properly, executive compensation can enhance value creation and growth over the longer run, help retain and develop talent and encourage sustainable business practices. Managed sub-optimally, compensation may encourage short-term behaviour, poor capital allocation and strategy, loss of key talent and risk losing the firm’s social license to operate.

Compensation and equity alignment can be challenging to get right. The pandemic has shown for a number of listed REITs that remuneration structuring and key performance hurdles were not fit for purpose, resulting in a wholesale “shifting of the goal posts” thereafter. Schemes with longer-term performance hurdles focused on securityholder returns and sustainability, with a greater lean into longer-dated stock grants, generally fared better through the cycle. An emphasis on nearer-term performance targets with outsized cash components or short-dated stock grants were ultimately more impacted by cyclical factors that were (at least partly) out of management’s control. Similarly, schemes that lacked a meaningful performance objective and were linked predominantly to the passage of time have generally not fared well.

Read More

Insolvency resolution has been a bane for Indian policy makers and real estate lenders alike, with a poor track record in terms of recoveries and timeliness before the implementation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

In our latest report, we examine the development of the IBC relevance, impact and challenges faced in resolving insolvencies in the real estate sector. Our key findings deal with:

Resolution rates in Real Estate within IBC, compared to other sectors.

• Recovery rate, as a proportion of claims, where resolution has been achieved
• Key challenges specific to resolution of real estate stress
• Way forward in resolving real estate insolvencies

Download the Report Read More