Insights & Resources Property Advisory

Commercial Real Estate (CRE) predictions for 2024

The Commercial Real Estate (CRE) sector in Australia stands at the threshold of exciting transformations and advancements. Against the backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis, a slowing economy, technological breakthroughs, and evolving societal preferences, it’s crucial to explore the predictions that are likely to shape the Australian CRE landscape in 2024.

Property Asset Planning Part 2

Asset planning is often not a well-developed capability in many organisations. For organisations with existing asset plans, it is time to review them; for those without a plan, it’s time get started.

The must have content for your strategic asset management plan (SAMP)

Cover your butt by including the must-haves in your strategic asset management plan (SAMP)

7 ways of clarifying the future when developing an asset management strategy

Here are our best 7 ways to reduce uncertainty and improve your plan for future asset needs.

7 most common mistakes made when developing a strategic asset management plan (SAMP)

Here is a list of the most common mistakes, and recommendations, made when developing an asset management plan.

Property Asset Planning Part 1

The Asset Planning Guide Part 1 is designed to assist a broad cross section of managers to understand the basics of asset planning, the key considerations and approaches that can be used.

Start planning for the Whole of Government Asset and Facilities Management policies

NSW Government Asset Management and Facilities Management The NSW Government released a new asset management policy in October 2020 with full compliance required, at the latest, by June 2024. In our experience, it would be fair to say that most facility/property and asset managers are yet to work out how this translates to the better management of government owned facilities and property assets on the ground. We recently became aware that the NSW Government is developing a new strategy for facilities management (FM) and there are clear overlaps with their thinking and the asset management policy. Given Grosvenor’s experience working…

Achieving Net Zero with your property portfolio and assets

Achieving the goal of net-zero emissions – and net-negative beyond that – requires concerted efforts from organisations which must be guided by a vision, actioned through a deliberate plan, and monitored through accurate and timely data. Your portfolio and assets are vehicles for change – are you using them? Do you know what your current emissions are, your future targets, and do you have a plan to get you there?

How will Chat-GPT4 impact the property sector?

GPT4 has the potential to bridge the gap between existing technology and innovations that the property sector already uses to provide more nuanced insights. It allows for us (humans) to quickly link systems together to build a complete picture of asset and lease performance, customer needs, market trends and other external factors to provide more robust analysis and recommendations.

Time to review your property services with Grosvenor’s Property Assessment Framework

Let’s face it, you’re currently reviewing your property services thanks to a recent pandemic. A review and reform of services within your corporate property portfolio is either underway, under review or rushed to completion.

3 reasons why property portfolios underperform… and why you can’t blame bad luck

Property costs are easy to excuse as just an expense, most managers believing that property offers little return on investment…

Your Strategy and Execution. The final strategic capability in your property function.

The property strategy connects directly to the organisational strategy. It is the key linkage between that the organisation is seeking to achieve and how the physical infrastructure supports the achievement of those objectives.

Client Engagement underpins your property function

Client engagement is the link between what the organisation needs and what the property function does. It is also about what priorities and focuses the team has and how they define what their goals and objectives look like.

Service Delivery Model – The technical design pillar for your property function

The SDM is a key design element of any property function. It will impact all aspects of delivery including how data is managed and what internal resources are required.

People, capabilities, and structure – pillars in your property function

With all good organisation designs, the core requirement is alignment to strategy. For all supporting functions, it is key to ensure that the structure of the core business is reflected in the structure of the property team.

How Data and Systems Management can accelerate your property function.

Finance underpins the entire operations of a business. And of course, the property is fuelled by finance being the second largest overhead after staff costs and usually the largest fixed asset class.

Financial Management is key to a high performing property function

Finance underpins the entire operations of a business. And of course, the property is fuelled by finance being the second largest overhead after staff costs and usually the largest fixed asset class.

Grosvenor’s Property Assessment Framework

Let’s face it, you’re currently reviewing your property services thanks to a recent pandemic. A review and reform of services within your corporate property portfolio is either underway, under review or rushed to completion.

The Post-COVID Workplace – Who Knows?

When working with uncertainty it’s important to consider what you know and what you don’t know.

Tips for designing and managing contract performance

As contract getting longer, focus on outputs, not inputs, relate to services, not products and have higher numbers of stakeholders to service they require a relationship-based approach. More importantly, if you want the service provider to do more than just the minimum, then you must (as a client) take an active interest in THEIR needs as well as your own.

How shared services for property and facilities management creates value

The delivery of support and back office services under a shared service model is nothing new. However shared services for property and facilities management within the public sector is relatively new and subject to a different set of drivers for value creation.

Necessary evil or strategic asset?

Like maximising the performance of your staff, maximising the performance of your property portfolio is far more complicated than simple cost management. A guide to building high performance corporate property portfolios.

Want to outsource your corporate real estate?

It’s common practice to outsource your corporate real estate, but you do need to know what you’re doing.

Vacant Office Space in the Public Sector – Why it occurs and how to fix it

A while back I posted a short piece on a phenomenon which Grosvenor termed ‘Structural Vacancy’. It’s the situation that occurs when organisations reduce their staff numbers over a short period of time leaving a significant amount of vacant office accommodation.

The next generation of property outsourcing – creating value

The traditional model for outsourcing property services is under pressure. Having harvested the initial benefits, many clients are questioning the value that they receive from large, single-sourced relationships.

Flexible working: An inevitability; not a possibility – 3 global forces reshaping our workplaces

The development and ongoing adoption of flexible working arrangements, by organisations big and small, is an inevitable consequence of the impact of three global forces reshaping the way we work.

4 fundamentals to prevent failure of outsourced property contracts

While the number of failed outsourced relationships is getting fewer, failures are getting far more attention in the market than the many successes. Everyone loves a disaster story, right?

Top 3 Success Factors to becoming a Flexible Workplace

Flexible working arrangements are an inevitable consequence of a number of global forces reshaping the way we work and how we engage with technology. No organisation is immune, but nor should the inevitable be feared. Here’s my top 3 observations of how early-adopting organisations have successfully made the shift to a new, more flexible workspace.

Is it time to put government property under the microscope?

Have government property functions, often the second highest operating cost after staff, ever been properly put under the microscope?

Public Sector Property Outsourcing: Why your contract isn’t adding value

Outsourcing operational activities allows the internal team to focus on strategy and the needs of their clients. It is this focus on strategy where the most value is created.

Why less is sometimes more for optimum service delivery

Performance issues are too often associated with a lack of resources when it can actually be that there are too many. In these instances business performance is compromised by excessive management capacity.

The main causes of facilities management outsourcing failure and how to fix it

If properly thought through and executed, outsourcing can add substantial value. If done poorly, it is usually due to problems with the way it was done or in other words, the client.

Why Facilities Management must evolve with the University education revolution

In the Higher Education Sector, it’s no longer sufficient to simply provide a great faculty and publish the latest research. It’s now equally important for a competent Facilities Management function to consider the experience and wellbeing of its students. To attract undergraduates, you need great facilities, teachers, classes and courses.

4 essential steps to ensure compliance with the Asset Management Accountability Framework (AMAF)

It is essential that your asset management strategy be developed to the point where it complies with the requirements of the AMAF framework. These four steps will help you achieve that goal.

5 reasons you need a property strategy

A property strategy will enable you to get the best of your expenditure and leverage the regular ups and downs of market cycles.

Workplace density: Is the size of your office impacting profitability?

Technology is enabling businesses to optimise workplaces in ways that were unimaginable even five years ago, and changes the way we think about the modern workplace.

Optimising workplace density – what governments can learn from the private sector

The public sector is a major occupier of office space in Australia. State and federal government inhabit up to 30% of all office premises nationally.

When and what to outsource and how it can save you money

One of the biggest, almost-hidden benefit of outsourcing for any company is freedom. Freedom for your staff to work strategically to grow your company, rather than getting caught up in the small stuff.

The most important aspect of property management and how data can help save you money

If you’re serious about managing your property more wisely and increasing your business’s success, ask yourself these two questions:

Assessing your property investment strategy…hold, invest, review or release?

Your property investment strategy will assess how well your current portfolio meets the business’ needs and where to optimise your capital investment.

A diagnostic tool to prioritise change and improvements

In our experience the Corporate Real Estate (CRE) function is often caught in departmental no-man’s land. It’s usually treated as ‘just something we do’, not something that is a strategic part of the long-term success of the organisation.

Why procurement and property should stop butting heads

Tension and mutual frustration often characterise the relationship between Procurement and Property. But why? You both want to achieve greater value for your organisation, right? Over the last five years there has been significant change in the relationship between the property and procurement functions. In this article, Kent Stuart takes a light-hearted look at the issue and tries to reframe the property function for procurement professionals.