Lendlease launches property project management platform
The platform, called the iERA Robo Advisor, is able to provide details of the different types of asset progression plans; purchase and payment schedules; investment analysis and risk assessment; and new home recommendations.
Lendlease has launched a property project management platform, aimed at providing “better clarity” across the lifecycle of a built project, the firm says in a statement.
Lendlease will utilise the platform, called Podium, to house new products and services that will also be offered to the broader industry.
Podium capitalises on data available across the property and construction sector, connecting insights from past projects and across the life-cycle of a development — linking visions, plans and programmes to results, realities and efficiencies — in order to simplify decision-making, Lendlease says.
CapitaLand introduces contactless technologies for offices and business
As workers progressively return to offices and business parks owned by CapitaLand, the developer has introduced digital platforms and contactless technologies.
Visitors and staff can register on the CapitaStar@Work digital platform to facilitate contact tracing. The app also allows office capacity management and bulk procurement of sanitisation services and equipment, such as thermal scanners.
Tenants can input staff’s working and lunch hours in order for the developer to plan and manage traffic flow during peak periods. Additionally, they can conduct health and wellness surveys customised for their staff through the app.
Tan Yew Chin, CEO of Business Park & Commercial, CapitaLand Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia, says: “Given CapitaLand’s portfolio size and digital capabilities as a real estate developer, owner and operator, we are uniquely positioned to extend technology solutions and value-added services into tenants’ work premises with better seamlessness and economies of scale than if the tenants were to do it on their own.”
Moving forward, CapitaLand will pilot and deploy contactless and other technologies such as facial recognition and UV disinfection devices. An automated Ultra UV handrail disinfection device is being tested at Capital Tower and Galaxis to disinfect the handrail when the escalator is in use. The turnstiles at workspaces can be activated via facial recognition or QR code to minimise contact. Air handling units at selected properties are also fitted with UV disinfection systems.
Additionally, if required, CapitaLand can help tenants search for alternate flexible workspaces within its portfolio, such as Bridge+, The Workshop, The Work Project and CoSpace Park. take-up and rents, Colliers forecasts tenant demand in the big Australian cities to improve once the country’s borders have reopened. It expects rents in Melbourne to achieve 2.9% five-year average growth, as the Australian city is a global centre for biomedical research.
In Auckland, present vacancy is at a record low of 4.7%, and rents have risen by 3.9% per annum over the past five years. Colliers attributes this to strong demand for office space, office conversion to residential and hotel space, and limited new developments that have weighed on demand and supply balance in the CBD for almost a decade. However, in the short term, it expects new office supply and the impact of Covid-19 to see market conditions ease in the city.
However, over the remainder of 2020, Colliers forecasts that only Taipei, Tokyo and Auckland can expect office rents to stay firm. The office markets in the three cities are currently supported by low vacancy rates, and in Tokyo’s case, high pre-commitment rates for new buildings.
Other office markets are likely to see through a tough year, it says. In Hong Kong, average office rents are expected to fall by 14% in 2020.
Meanwhile, Chinese tier-1 cities face a “significant threat” to near-term rent growth. Shanghai and Shenzhen, in particular, face an overhang of new supply, which should push the city-wide vacancy rates to 25% and 29% respectively. In Shanghai, Colliers predicts a 6.1% drop in average rent over 2020, with smaller declines in other cities.
Elsewhere, Manila faces the steepest near-term downturn in rents; Colliers forecasts a 17% decline over 2020. es to the way people live and work during lockdown are already affecting buyer preferences. Respondents in 33% of the markets reported increased interest from buyers looking to upsize from their main residence.
Increased interest in upsizing their properties across urban centres such as Sydney, Rome and Monaco could potentially be due to residents enduring their respective lockdown periods in smaller spaces, says Savills.
The number of buyers looking for investment properties could potentially dip in 2020. So far, 30% of markets reported a fall in buyers looking at investment properties compared to 2019.
Commenting on the future landscape of Singapore’s real estate, Alan Cheong, head of research & consultancy at Savills Singapore, says: “For institutional investors, their focus is on logistics, data centres and offices. While some are concerned about the retreating demand from flexible work space operators, others are looking beyond the demand side and factoring significant construction delays caused by the pandemic into their analysis. These delays may more than shore up rents that are pressured down by weak business conditions.”
Once travel restrictions into Singapore are eased, Cheong expects ultra high-net-worth Chinese buyers to snap up properties in the city-state.
The markets covered in the survey include Antigua, Austria, Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Cayman Islands, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, England, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Monaco, Montenegro, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, The Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United Arab Emirates.