Tim Horsey highlights themes covered at the upcoming IPD Occupiers Conference

The IPD Occupiers Property in Business Conference 2009, taking place in London on 29th June, will examine the opportunities offered by current market conditions, and the practical ways these can be exploited by those managing property estates.

A recent article in The Economist entitled ‘Dire days in commercial property’ ended with the statement “tenants rather than landlords are calling the shots in a chastened market.”  At the same time CB Richard Ellis reports on rental markets across Europe are suggesting that rising vacancy levels are offering occupiers greater choice and flexibility.

Matthew Pullen, Head of Global Corporate Services EMEA, CB Richard Ellis, has commented: “With corporate expansions scarce and asset values and investment returns falling, some office landlords are under huge pressure and the negotiating power is often in tenants’ hands in many European markets. Occupiers who have an opportunity to vacate and are actively prepared to do so are particularly well-positioned. The cost and quality of alternative accommodation available, as a greater choice of quality space enters the market, makes the threat of relocation credible to the landlord and therefore places tenants in an even stronger position.

“The ability to secure rent reductions or reduce space will depend on a wide range of factors including local market conditions, lease structures and the position and attitude of individual landlords. Yet the current market does present opportunities for occupiers who can combine awareness of real estate market conditions with an ability to influence further changes in their business cultures. Timing, market intelligence and high-quality advice are vital at this time.”

The forthcoming IPD Occupiers Property in Business Conference 2009, will be focusing on precisely these issues and will examine and help identify the opportunities within the current market that occupiers can take advantage of.

Martin Laws, Deloitte’s partner for corporate real estate, and one of the day’s first speakers, will look at the lessons property occupiers can learn from previous economic downturns.  He will speak from the experience of a long career in this field, during which his teams have advised on some of the largest global corporate real estate portfolios, and his consulting experience covered the full corporate real estate value chain - including defining property strategies, optimising the use, location and management of space, and assessing the cost and effectiveness of property and facilities solutions.

The second session of the conference will get right down to the practicalities of identifying and taking realistic opportunities in this difficult period.  This will be addressed both from the standpoint of the building performance measurer – as expressed by Glenn Corney of IPD and summarised in a separate article in this newsletter – and that of the large estate manager, here represented by Chris Kane, Director of Real Estate at BBC Property.  Chris will discuss how much estates should be investing in improving space at a time when employees are unlikely to be at their most demanding.  The BBC is currently undertaking major property projects at MediaCityUK (30,000 sq m) in north west England and central London at Broadcasting House (47,000 sq m), which will be the new home for all BBC Journalism and Audio and Music operations.

The afternoon will begin with a ‘Question Time’ session in which the audience will be able to discuss the key issues now facing the business with a panel of industry specialists: Michael Joroff of MIT, the conference chairman, Christopher Hedley of IPD and Neil Usher, General Manager of Group Property at Rio Tinto.  Rio Tinto is currently in the process of redeveloping its former headquarters building in St James’s Square, London, with the possibility of either returning to that building, which contains 125,000 sq ft of ‘highly sustainable’ offices, or retaining it as an investment.

The conference will conclude with a session on ‘Making it happen’, which will look at the possibilities for ambitious real estate directors to embrace the change agenda and forward their careers in the process, as well as considering how employees who are at present likely to be suspicious of any kind of business restructuring can be persuaded to buy into new patterns of space use.  Your guides for this journey will be Robert Bonwell, Head of Corporate Solutions at Jones Lang LaSalle, and Richard Jolly, Associate Professor at the London Business School.

The event will also include plenty of time for networking with your corporate real estate colleagues, with a buffet lunch from 12.30 to 1.30pm, and a drinks reception at 4.45pm.

THIS INSIGHTFUL IPD CONFERENCE IS APPROACHING FAST SO BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW!

IPD Occupiers Property in Business Conference 2009
Ambitious Realism
29th June - London
Visit the website & book online here