Office Markets and Public Policy (eBook)

Colin Jones is professor of Estate Management at Heriot-Watt University. He has published widely on spatial commercial, industrial and housing property markets, urban regeneration and the economics of housing policy.

Acknowledgements ix

Preface xi

1 Introduction 1

History of offices 2

City office markets 6

Overview of office market trends 19

Book structure 20

2 Market Fundamentals 25

Growth of services 26

New technology, new work and new offices 28

New specialist office forms 31

The office stock 31

Constraining influences on the office property market 33

Office market cycles 37

Repeating the 'mistakes' 42

Conclusions 44

3 Submarkets and the Changing Nature of the Traditional

Central Business District 47

Economics of cities and office location 48

The Central Business District and intra-urban rent structures
50

Office submarkets 55

Identifying submarkets 59

Changing submarkets and a polycentric office market 67

Summary 69

4 Decentralisation and Edge City Office Centres 73

The information age 74

The motor age and urban forms 75

Deconstructing agglomeration economies 78

Decentralisation processes 82

Suburban offices and edge cities 84

Spatial structure of urban office markets 87

Spatial pattern of rents 90

Congestion, decentralisation and public policy 92

Conclusions 95

5 Investment, Risk Premiums and Office Market Dynamics 97

Obsolescence of offices and depreciation 98

Institutional office investment trends in the UK since the 1980s
101

Investment in offices 102

Establishment of office parks as an investment class 104

Mixed-use development 108

Institutional investment and office cycles 113

Credit crunch, cycles and bubbles 118

Conclusions 121

6 Public Policy and Competitiveness 125

Offices, competitiveness and the urban economy 127

Overview of public policy 130

Competitiveness and property market constraints 132

Public policy and office location constraints 134

Logic of property-led local economic development policies
140

Sustainable markets 145

Case studies of public policy initiatives 148

Concluding comments 157

7 Green Offices, Office Markets and Sustainability 161

A sustainable city? 163

Offices and the environmental dimension 165

Tall office towers and the economic dimension 168

Greening the office stock 171

Arguments for paying higher rents for green offices 173

Green refurbishment of existing offices 177

Current and changing occupier attitudes 178

Towards a green office rental market 179

Green investment 188

Conclusions 189

8 Market Changes and Challenges 193

Evolving offices 194

Evolving office markets 196

Office market cycles, bubbles and globalisation 199

Toward greener offices? 201

The future of offices as an investment 208

Public policy issues 211

Future challenges for the market 217

References 219

Index 233