JLL Perspectives

The race to drive down carbon emissions is on, which means renewable energy projects such as wind and solar farms are surging. But they can often be a source of contention among rural landholders, whose properties make the ideal location for renewables infrastructure. So what compensation is available to landowners, and how is it being negotiated? JLL Perpsectives podcast host Rebecca Kent speaks to Will Gurry, head of agribusiness valuations - Australia, JLL; Larry Susskind, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and vice chair of the negotiation program at Harvard Law School; and Jamahl Waddington, head of infrastructure advisory - Australia, JLL.

The growing performance gap between new buildings with a high sustainability and experience offering, and ageing offices, is both the biggest opportunity and the biggest problem facing real estate investors right now. Some buildings located outside main cities are increasingly being overlooked by companies trying to attract workers into central offices and are worth more if sold empty. Meanwhile, well-located offices with great amenities are massively outperforming. In this episode, JLL's senior office leasing brokers from Europe, Australia, U.S., and Asia discuss the past year in office leasing, and what's ahead, with Perspectives podcast host Rebecca Kent. Guests: Jeff Eckert, president, United States agency leasing Neil Prime, head of large-scale project leasing, UK Marie-Laure de Sousa, head of office leasing, EMEA Alex Barnes, managing director, Hong Kong and Macau operations Tim O'Connor, head of office leasing, Australia

Retail real estate, student accommodation, and the hotels and hospitality sector took a hit during the COVID pandemic. But less than five years on, their comeback journeys are defying expectations. Respected real estate analyst and commentator Andrew Ballantyne speaks to Perspectives podcast host Rebecca Kent about what has been driving the rebound of what were real estate's most challenged asset classes. He also dives into the industry's most polarising sector: offices. Plus, find out why real estate investment volumes have come to be at their lowest level since 2012.

Host Rebecca Kent checks in with JLL's head of research for Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Ballantyne for a download of what JLL's half-year data tells us about the state of real estate. Business's sustainability requirements are driving a huge desirability gap between new and upgraded buildings and those that have had less attention. Meanwhile, most investors are sitting tight as they make new discoveries about the price of their real estate assets. Also, considering cost-of-living pressures, consumers are still spending and retail is fairing better than you might think. Could mortgage stress really be that bad? Music: Summer Love by Helkimer is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

JLL, the global real estate services firm, recently moved its central Sydney operations to a new office at the Lendlease-owned Salesforce Tower. The office is everything research says workplaces need to be: it’s hospitality-driven, sustainable, flexible, tech-enabled, it encourages collaboration, plus there’s barista-made coffee, beer on tap and views to die for. In this episode, Christina Khoo, who designed the premium space, chats to Rebecca Kent about how the office is being received, and the pressure of designing a new workplace for your own colleagues – and your boss. Music: Slipping Away, Dyalla

Why Australia is bucking the trend on office demand; The tax boost that build-to-rent needed; And how much longer will industrial real estate remain the industry's golden child. JLL's head of research for Australasia, Andrew Ballantyne explores these ideas, supported by JLL data collated from the first three months of 2023. He is interviewed by Rebecca Kent, director of content in Australia, for JLL.

Measures to mitigate real estate’s impact on the environment are gathering pace, but some managers are struggling to keep up, with confusion around sustainability targets and how to achieve them. JLL’s Connor McCauley, head of sustainability for Australia and New Zealand, and Anthony Clark, senior director in tenant representation, share the five most frequently asked questions they encountered from real estate professionals when they organised a roadshow around Australia to discuss the financial and social imperatives of sustainability. “A lot of people don’t understand the difference between carbon neutral and carbon net zero,” Clark says in the podcast. Meanwhile, McCauley says the basic first step of carrying out an audit on business’s energy and water consumption could be “revealing”, with some businesses discovering they were still paying for bin collections when bins were empty due to increased remote working. “The cost of an audit hasn't gone up, but energy prices and the cost of waste collection definitely have, so it’s highly recommended.” This episode of JLL’s Perspectives podcast is hosted by Rebecca Kent, content director, JLL. jll.com.au/en/campaign/perspectives-podcast

Universities have been redesigning their campuses and classrooms to suit how people want to teach and learn in the 2020s. Spaces now accommodate remote and on-site students at the same time, and there’s a greater leaning towards collaborative learning. Why the changes? What makes an optimal university campus experience in the post-COVID era? And after lockdowns and travel restrictions caused pain for universities globally, what other disruptions could be on the horizon? Hear from Dinesh Acharya, who heads JLL's higher education consulting business, and David Bruce, space planning and development manager at Monash University. Host: Rebecca Kent, content director, JLL.

JLL has identified five key themes that will drive real estate investment decisions in 2022. They are where opportunity beckons and where global investors are focusing their strategies as more capital is ploughed into real estate on the back of a record-breaking 2021. Guests: Andrew Ballantyne, head of research - Australia, JLL, and Fergal Harris, head of capital markets - Australia, JLL. Host: Rebecca Kent, content director - Australia, JLL

One of the most interesting storylines to have prevailed from the pandemic has been around the phenomenal increase in online shopping and demand for certain products and materials. But two years in, and you might assume the challenges have been overcome, right? Not quite. In the 2021 peak shopping season retailers and other businesses are still apologising to their customers for being out of stock on certain items, or for items reaching them so long after they’d been ordered. Three experts lift the lid on the hurdles still being faced in the supply chain, logistics and industrial warehousing sectors, including everything from people shortages, to pallet shortages and an undersupply of warehouses. Guests: Greg Pike, head of industrial and logistics brokerage, Australia, JLL; Kyle Rogers, co-founder, uTenant and director of supply chain, Supply Chain and Logistics Association, Australia; and Chris Wang, chief operating officer, EWE Group. Host: Rebecca Kent, content director - Australia, JLL.

3D technology and its ability to turn numbers on a spreadsheet into objects that leap from a screen is finding more sophisticated applications in real estate. Digital tools such as building information modelling (BIM), geographic information system mapping (GIS), and lidar scanning, along with platforms such as Matterport, are allowing users to interact with a virtual representation of a building, portfolio or entire city landscape like never before. Guests Travis Brousseau, GIS lead for JLL in Australia and New Zealand, and Mark Hamilton, JLL's head of digital solutions for the Middle East and North Africa, talk about projects where digital mapping is speeding up decision-making, and supporting industry-wide agendas such as sustainability. They are interviewed by Perspectives podcast host, Rebecca Kent, content director, JLL Australia.

Over the next decade, the Olympic Games are going to be run a lot leaner. That includes Brisbane, Australia, which is set to host the event in 2032 at a modest projected budget of A$4.5 billion (US$3.4 bn). This undercuts the approximately US$10 bn average spent since the 1996 games in Atlanta. Brisbane's selection as the 2032 Olympics host city, which will be announced just ahead of the Tokyo games, falls under a new approach from Olympic organisers to curb the financial burden of hosting the event, with a drastically more sustainable selection criteria. It is Brisbane and South East Queensland's growth trajectory and massive infrastructure pipeline (it already has 80% of the infrastructure required for the games) that made the region a compelling contender. In this Perspectives podcast episode, host Rebecca Kent talks to Mark Stockwell, Australian Olympian, property developer and member of multiple Olympics committees, and Stephen Conry, chief executive - Australia and New Zealand, JLL, who was the director of the Commonwealth Games 2018 board, about what's in store for the region as it prepares itself to host the biggest sporting event in the world.

Investors in build-to-rent residential are looking to take advantage of a subdued apartment market and slower commercial development to secure high density development sites large development sites, driving momentum into a sector that has until now has struggled to gain traction. The post-COVID opportunity in Australia is comparable to the UK after the Global Financial Crisis put the reins on private apartment development and saw build-to-rent grow into an institutional asset class. Managers say build-to-rent apartments will transform the renting experience. Leigh Warner, JLL’s head of residential research, and James Greener, a fund manager in build-to-rent at Investa, explore the sector, and the opportunities further with Perspectives podcast host Rebecca Kent.

The youngest cohort of workers in the corporate sector is helping businesses drive better social outcomes, especially within Australian Indigenous communities. Corporate spending with Indigenous suppliers is over $900 million compared to $6.3 million 11 years ago. While the catalyst for this growth has been government-imposed spending targets, businesses say they are increasingly finding young ‘champions’ among their workforce eager to find ways to create social impact. “We are absolutely seeing that the new generation of workers want to work on purpose-driven initiatives,” says Stephanie Roache, sustainability manager at Australia post. “I’ve heard many people from our procurement team say that on the weekend they don’t necessarily want to talk to their friends about the big telco contract they secured at work. They’d rather talk about how they worked with one of their big fleet suppliers to carve out a small contract to give to an Indigenous fleet company, giving them an opportunity to get into the supply chain and grow. That’s giving people a go and makes them feel really good about what they’re doing.” Businesses aspiring to improve their Indigenous engagement are gradually shifting strategies from spending targets to employment targets. They are also finding ways to support greater Indigenous representation in technical roles, rather than low-skilled roles such as cleaning. Roache features in this episode of JLL’s Perspectives podcast with Troy Rugless, co-founder of Indigenous-owned PSG Holdings and director of Evolve FM, and Henri Fadli, head of supply chain and procurement, JLL. Host: Rebecca Kent

Commercial buildings that help reduce carbon emissions or promote healthy employees have increasingly earned certifications for their contributions in recent years. Now a new certification is aiming to benchmark another indicator of building quality: its smartness. U.S.-based WiredScore recently launched SmartScore, which aims to bring consensus around the term “smart” in smart buildings, a phrase that has typically denoted sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) used to optimise building systems. JLL’s Perspectives podcast host Rebecca Kent is joined by Eden Dwek, WiredScore’s director of Expansion, and James Giannikos, an engineer at Australian superannuation fund manager ISPT. They discuss what makes a smart building, how to prepare a building for future technology, why landlords and tenants need to be prepared for 5G, how untidy building risers can negatively affect the tenant experience and why edge computing is making a comeback.

While a slow return to the office is underway, collaborating virtually remains the norm, with teams often still split between home and the workplace. It’s highlighted a surprising issue: When it comes to collaborating over software, offices can be seen lagging behind. Hear more from John Corbett, workplace and real estate strategist at Cisco Systems Inc., and Sonya Alexander, workplace strategist at JLL.

A year ago, warehouses were being snapped up by businesses racing to keep up with the massive surge in online retail triggered by COVID lockdowns. The expectation was that as the pandemic eased, so would the demand for industrial real estate. But that never happened. JLL's Matt Lee, head of industrial occupier services in Australia, and Allan Frydman, head of supply chain in Australia and New Zealand talk to Perspectives podcast host Rebecca Kent about how businesses are navigating the shortage of warehouses while trying to keep up with consistently high levels of ecommerce and persistent supply chain challenges.

Several factors are spurring businesses into taking action on their office space and existing leases, with the aim of getting the best out of their employees while also trimming unnecessary costs. Increased flexible working, the pressure to rein in costs, and elevated office vacancies, all converging amid the unpredictability of the global economy and future of work, are leading to a wave of renegotiated office contracts in which tenants overwhelmingly have the upper hand. Landlords are offering fit-outs, reduced make-good obligations, rent-free periods, and the use of flexible or ‘third’ space – in many cases for the entire duration of a lease – as just some incentives to retain their tenants. Meanwhile, some occupiers are becoming landlords themselves by subleasing their excess office space. In this episode, JLL tenant representatives Jessica van Raay and Dirk van Velden discuss with Rebecca Kent the pros and cons of every option.

Large organisations are increasingly working with Indigenous suppliers in Australia to woo customers making decisions on social values rather than just the bottom line. Governments and major companies including ANZ Bank, Medibank and Australia Post are among groups using their buying power to deliver social change. This is a stark shift from a decade ago, when many firms would have dismissed Indigenous businesses as contenders for facilities management and other building services contracts. The number of Indigenous-owned businesses is growing as a result. Registrations of businesses at least 50-percent owned by Indigenous people grew 180 percent between 2017 and 2020. One high-profile benefactor is Mick O’Loughlin, a former footballer for the Sydney Swans, in Australia’s Aussie Rules AFL league. He’s also the founder and managing director of commercial cleaning business ARA Indigenous Services. “Growing up we were always waiting for funding to come from somewhere to play sport with other communities, but as a business owner now I can just say ‘we’re sponsoring this and everyone gets a jersey, everyone gets a netball uniform’. We work extremely hard, but nothing makes me more proud to be able to do that,” he says. Hear from O’Loughlin, Laura Berry, the chief executive of non-profit Supply Nation, and Robin Burton, senior supply chain diversity and sustainability specialist at JLL, as they chat to Perspectives podcast host Rebecca Kent about why working with Indigenous businesses is climbing to the top of the corporate agenda.

The clouds of economic uncertainty brought on by COVID-19 are shifting to reveal better prospects for office leasing in Australia as business confidence improves and appetite for offices rebuilds. Though the overall net take-up of office space remained negative at 116,000 square metres in the three months to December 2020, it had contracted less than the previous three quarters of the year - a sign that business sentiment is improving, particularly with the vaccine due in March. Listen to Andrew Ballantyne, JLL's head of research – Australia, and Tim O’Connor, head of leasing, as they share their insights on office leasing, including sublease space, changing office footprints, and the future of city centres in this episode of the Perspectives podcast, hosted by Rebecca Kent.