Commercial property market news. HELP

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Got to answer a question on "Factors affecting the UK commercial property market" for a job application (amd potentially for a presentation at interview). I've been googling and reading but a lot is gobbldygook and I don't know how long or short I should make it. I only get 750 words including another question and my personal statement! So far I've got: the commercial landlord rent freeze, changing culture of office and home working, Michael gove as new housing secretary (I actually don't know if this affects commercial though or just residential?!). I'm stuck and I want the job. Any help?

Retail spaces potentially being repurposed (and you could discuss some options); the increasing demand for the huge distribution warehouses and where they're situated (up and down the motorways); and one of my favourites from a work talk - the rise in "dark" kitchens - look up what they are especially in the context of Deliveroo.

HTH!

Possibly business rates - depending if there is a rebalancing of business rates away from being highly focussed on high street businesses and increased on industrial estates/business parks.

Growth of online shopping/use of click and collect - might lead to shops being show rooms more than shops?

High street/hospitality instability - if you've got lots of empty e.g. Pubs or other shops this should push rentals down.

Long term leases - if businesses have signed up to long term leases this will stabilise the rental market.

I've just made that lot up off the top of my head but I think it feels right.

What role are you applying for? Are you expected to have professional knowledge or just an awareness of the sector the employer works in?

Have a look at the headlines in Property Week:
www.propertyweek.com/markets/sector-reports

Or look at some of the updates from the big commercial property agents eg Savills / Knight Frank / JLL.

I would in commercial property development and the issues for us are the planning system changes that came in in September 2020, lack of construction workers, availability and price of materials, new sustainability standards in both construction and environmental mitigation. Does that help?

Try to think about different types of commercial property - retail, leisure, industrial etc as well as offices. They can have different and some times contradictory factors

So, thinking about covid - retail demand down due to businesses being forced to close, businesses going bust, move to online. Offices down for similar reasons, but less than you might expect as businesses taking a long time to adapt, not being sure of long term plans, and so on so many (especially big) companies haven't taken the leap yet. Thinking about industrial there has been very high demand for big warehouse sites due to the increase in online shopping.

Also think about why people invest in commercial property; low interest rates make borrowing cheap and tends to push up prices so can make it an appealing investment.

This is fantastic, thanks so much everyone, so much reading to go and do now! @BathTangle it's an apprentice surveyor role in the CS. So just an awareness I believe. I'd love to impress them!

Glad it's useful! If I were recruiting an apprentice I would also want to understand why they were keen on the sector - they are investing in your training so they want to be sure you are interested enough to stay. Of my recent trainees I have not expected them to have too much technical knowledge but a basic understanding of what we do and a genuine enthusiasm to learn about our market. E.g. who are the big players, both agents and purchasers/investors/developers and be questioning of what each might be looking for. If in the CS, perhaps also something about the public sector as property owner? NHS/MOD/local authorities are huge landowners, developers and indeed investors.

@BathTangle thank you. There is a another question asking why I'm interested in a career in property so I hope I've covered that ok, I work in social housing currently but no commercial experience, just always loved property (though development and interior design) and architecture tbh. It never occurred to me someone may drop out as I'm absolutely desperate for a change and think it's a golden opportunity!
Will bear in mind about public sector owning.

I’m also a surveyor and my stock answer (which is 100% true) as to why I picked surveying is that real estate decisions touch every moment of everyone’s life, and good decisions can very visibly make the world a better place.

For us the big, key obvious issues:

• Sustainability and the transition to net zero. I’d probably ask a graduate surveyor a question about sustainability in an interview at the minute
• The transition from bricks and mortar to online shops & resultant rise in logistics
• Offices and the impact of work from home, what does that mean for the future office?

there's a great deal of uncertaintly.

a lot of people hate an hour of more of cramped, filthy commuting and will not wantto return to a daily city centre office (this is especially a problem in London)

So nobody actually knows what a central block should be worth.

Bricks and mortar retailers are collapsing. So what is a retail outlet worth?

So nobody actually knows what a central block should be worth.

That’s not really true. Valuations are being issued without restriction and there’s many transactions going through of London and regional offices with deep buyer pools, so the market is functioning quite normally.

Cladding and also vacant properties due to less commercial space being required with smart working. Companies will downsize retail space as an easy cost saving exercise. There will be a lot more vacant, which means it’s harder to insure and maintain and landlords not getting the returns.

Also potentially have a look at sustainability. Check out a company such as Bruntwood who might give you an overview of mission statements around this.

Hi everyone. Thanks for your help. I've
Made a terrible mistake unfortunately and although I managed to submit my application on time, I hadn't realised that the tests were AFTER the submission of cv and statement. I literally haven't had time to do the tests I had to totally guess. My youngest son (18m) has a cold, is constipated and teething amd I've had to literally be up and down settling him all night tonight it's completely f**d my application up. I'm absolutely devastated. I thought I'd done the tests but I applied for another role recently in another department and I think I must have been thinking of them?! I have put so much of my (very limited) time into this application and its been for nothing. Sorry tp ramble on I am just devastated and really upset with myself foe not managing to get it finally together before the last night