The Covid-19 pandemic has forever changed the way we live and work. When people think of the office today, they no longer imagine their desk or a room with four walls. The concept of asset obsolescence, the convergence of everyday locations such as the office, home and third places like coffee shops or the gym has become more prevalent and inevitably affected tenants’ behaviors toward the workplace.
Prospective tenants are also increasingly vetting spaces online before going to physically tour a space or engage with a broker to officially start the search process, meaning buildings need to be optimized in search engines so they reach the right audiences. According to our data, internet building searches are up 210% compared to 2019; greater importance needs to be put on online listings and marketing such as digital content and SEO to drive meaningful engagement from tenants.
All in all, predictive analytics will be the cornerstone of a proactive and strategic approach that will be essential to landlords as they grapple with the complexities of shifting tenant behavior as it pertains to the office market.While I believe the leveraging of predictive analytics will be the next generation of commercial real estate technology, there are still economic and industry roadblocks that may pose challenges.