Retro(fit) Future
Given that 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built and these buildings already account for 40% of global carbon emissions, real estate has cottoned on that refurbishing existing assets is the best way to do its bit for tackling the climate crisis while making money, too. Refurbished buildings don’t command the same green premium as the very best new buildings, but they do command a premium over unrefurbished peers. Tishman Speyer recently raised more than $1B for a “brown-to-green” strategy in Europe, and occupiers including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Spotify have all taken space in refurbished buildings in gateway cities around the world in recent years.
So a thorough retrofit of your empty building, paying particular attention to sustainability, seems a sound strategy to undertake. But who are you going to lease it to, how is that company going to approach the future of work, and how do you prepare for that future?
The answer, the data is increasingly suggesting, is hybrid. To see how office owners need to prepare for the world of hybrid work, read on here …
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