Evolving cities and the role of operational real estate

While in the West many people have rediscovered the suburbs and the countryside during the pandemic, cities still matter. Urban areas account for 80% of global GDP, forecast to rise to 90% by 2030, according to Oxford Economics. They are especially important to people’s formative years for study and work, building connections that can enhance social lives and accelerate careers long term.

Big cities are actively reinventing themselves to be fit for a post-pandemic world. The City of London has announced plans to convert vacant offices into residential, boosting its residential population. New York has adopted a policy of adaptive reuse of hotel and office buildings into residential.

The ‘15-minute city’ concept has gained traction, and major cities from London to Barcelona are expanding cycle networks. Some are embracing ‘micro mobility’, including e-scooters, with the potential to unlock areas for residential previously overlooked due to poor public transport connections.

Mixed uses benefit all uses. Investors, targeting long-term income streams, have a vested interest to ensure the wider environment they create is high-quality and well integrated into the wider community. Tenants are more likely to stay longer and pay a premium for this quality of experience.

Mono-use retail schemes, particularly impacted by the pandemic, are ripe for repurposing and reimagining. Residential will be central to this, helping to build viable, mixed-use places. To be truly diverse and sustainable they will need to  attract a breadth of ages, incomes and demographics. This presents an opportunity for everything from student to senior housing, and critically, at a range of price points.

_{Read the articles within Report: Global Living – 2021 below.}