{"id":853534,"date":"2025-06-05T09:11:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/ukreiif-2025-a-theory-of-real-estates-evolution\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T09:11:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:11:40","slug":"ukreiif-2025-a-theory-of-real-estates-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/ukreiif-2025-a-theory-of-real-estates-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"UKREiiF 2025: A theory of real estate\u2019s evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Simon Iatrou is a senior content strategist at Magenta Associates and was previously editor of Facilities Management Journal and i-FM<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Adapt or die<\/h3>\n

When Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution, he probably wasn\u2019t thinking about converting commercial property into residential flats. But the phrase cropped up again and again at the 2025 UK Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum for exactly that reason. My first visit, but its fourth outing at the Royal Armouries Museum and Leeds Dock.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe real estate industry is facing a tangle of threats, but can it adapt?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I heard similarly big, ominous phrases at this year\u2019s event: \u201cclimate emergency\u201d, \u201cgeopolitical uncertainty\u201d, \u201cbrittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible\u201d (BANI is the new VUCA, in case you missed the memo) \u2013 and they all pointed to the same stark challenge. The real estate industry is facing a tangle of threats, but can it adapt? Is it ready to change?<\/p>\n

In other words, do the solutions match the rhetoric? This tension showed up most clearly in several familiar areas: sustainability, real estate strategy and technology.<\/p>\n

A green revolution is coming<\/h3>\n

At an ESG breakfast briefing, Matt Mace, editor of sustainability news site Edie<\/em>, repeated a now-familiar stat: 80 per cent of the UK\u2019s current non-domestic building stock is already standing and will still be up in 2050. This, he explained, highlights the critical need to finance a \u201cretrofit revolution\u201d.<\/p>\n

Research by the UK Green Building Council, Mace added, suggests that even a shallow retrofit approach \u2013 tackling the \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d \u2013 could deliver up to a 30 per cent reduction in operational energy use. In turn, this could lead to deeper net gains.<\/p>\n

However, plenty of roadblocks remain. Edie<\/em>\u2019s latest Sustainable Business Tracker, a survey of 170+ in-house sustainability professionals (25 per cent from the construction industry), indicated a lack of funding for long-term ESG projects, hampering big, innovative work and upfront capital investment.<\/p>\n

Mace also mentioned the elephant in the room. \u201c2025 has been the year of ESG rollbacks, despite Labour\u2019s efforts to speed up the net-zero transition in the UK,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re feeling the ramifications of the US election, Trump, and tariffs, so if you have those on your bingo card, you can tick them off. Funding that was in green or ESG-labelled funds \u2013 totalling $8.6bn [\u00a36.35bn] \u2013 has flowed out in this first quarter alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there is cause for optimism. According to Mace, 88 per cent of Edie<\/em>\u2019s respondents reported that their chief executive is either somewhat or highly engaged with sustainability, suggesting the boardroom isn\u2019t closed. Meanwhile, JLL research in the US found that 42 per cent of investors and 34 per cent of occupiers are focusing on green office space, which continues to attract a premium.<\/p>\n

Progress, Mace said, depends on moving beyond simple pledges to detailed, long-term plans, particularly Climate Transition Plans. \u201cA pledge is just that \u2013 empty words on a page,\u201d he added. \u201cIf you can build your long-term plans, you can negate the short-term pain points that we see with these big macro trends, impacting supply chains and markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

A real estate arms race<\/h3>\n

Across several sessions focused on real estate trends, much of the conversation was about how occupier demands continue to shift post-pandemic. Office space will have to evolve with them.<\/p>\n

In a session titled \u2018Beyond the Amenities Arms Race\u2019, David Porter, a partner at Knight Frank, predicted that hybrid settings would remain the norm for the next three years, with his firm already seeing \u201ca slant towards office-first and office-only\u201d models. At the same time, Knight Frank data has found that the gap between the vacancy rate for new and Grade A spaces (now at 6.4 per cent) and the total vacancy rate is the widest it\u2019s been in 11 years. Porter characterised this not as a \u201cflight to quality\u201d but a \u201cfight for quality\u201d \u2013 and that fight, he said, is over flexibility, sustainability and amenity.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, though, the sector still needs to move beyond the mindset of \u201camenities for amenities\u2019 sake\u201d \u2013 beer fridges, ping pong tables, the kind of features that have taken up disproportionate space in the national press. In a separate \u2018Rethinking Real Estate\u2019 session, Imogen Thompson, executive director at the Urban Land Institute, reminded the audience that people now need a very good reason to come into the office. \u201cCan we do our laundry at work? You laugh,\u201d she said, \u201cbut we have spoken to providers offering laundry services and dog valets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, there was wide agreement that landlords and managing agents need to get more serious about amenities and the overall occupier experience \u2013 working harder to offer meaningful benefits that meet actual needs. In his session, Porter said this means prioritising functional amenities rather than flashy ones, such as education-focused spaces including auditoriums and event spaces with learning programmes.<\/p>\n

Susan Jayne Thams Carruth, partner \u2013 operations at GXN, agreed, pointing to the Open Learning Hub at 2 Finsbury Avenue. Designed as a public function on the lower levels of the building, it is visible and accessible from the street. The aim, Carruth said, is to provide upskilling opportunities for both tenants and surrounding communities, especially young people. It is envisioned, she added, as a space for \u201ccommunities of practice, communities of interest, and usable outside office hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

The merging of conventional boundaries and user groups was a recurring theme. Thompson described it as \u201clooking beyond the red line boundary\u201d \u2013 a call to understand and connect with the vibrancy of local communities.<\/p>\n

Michael Wiseman, head of campuses for British Land, said this same thinking had informed their shift to a campus model, investing \u201cin collections of buildings rather than individual assets\u201d. It allows British Land to deliver more cohesive experiences for occupiers. He cited the new Canada Water campus as an example of how mixed-use development can foster stronger links with the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

However, Porter called for more of this mindset across the industry. \u201cOccupiers talk a great game about giving back to the community. Are we seeing that? I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI is taking our jobs<\/h3>\n

Maybe. Maybe not. Sessions on technology revealed an industry that\u2019s optimistic about AI but still figuring things out \u2013 the scale of its future impact still somewhat ambiguous.<\/p>\n

David Peters, director at Jeeran UK, described AI as an \u201cinfinite-information sidekick\u201d that can unlock time for strategic thinking. His company\u2019s UK operation, he said, is lean enough that it could potentially be built entirely around AI \u2013 freeing up time for deeper thinking and more valuable work.<\/p>\n

At Gensler, residential practice leader John Badman said the firm\u2019s focus is on using AI to \u201cenhance and supercharge\u201d design talent, not replace it. Gensler has built a proprietary AI imaging tool which uses AI to enhance initial sketches and ideas, feeding information and descriptive words into the system to generate a large volume of visual options rapidly that the design team can then review and discard. This application, he said, speeds up visual communication with clients and local authorities, ultimately informing the creation of physical spaces.<\/p>\n

Like Peters, Sarah Allaoui, senior associate at Hoare Lea, a Tetra Tech company, urged everyone not to shy away from the fact that AI will replace many roles \u2013 the key lies in automating low-value work to focus on high-value outputs. In geospatial work, for example, \u201clocation unlocks intent, but AI unlocks scale\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

Survival of the fittest<\/h3>\n

The real estate sector is clearly facing multiple, converging existential threats. People are asking the right questions, and many companies are doing exciting things. But the truth is: if you don\u2019t already know that ESG needs to go beyond box-ticking, that a great occupier experience delivers real value, and that AI has massive potential to support \u2013 not just replace \u2013 human work, then you\u2019re already well behind.<\/p>\n

What UKREiiF made clear is that the only way to turn these threats into opportunities is through real, meaningful action.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n Contributor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simon Iatrou is a senior content strategist at Magenta Associates and was previously editor of Facilities Management Journal and i-FM Adapt or die When Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution, he probably wasn\u2019t thinking about converting commercial property into residential flats. But the phrase cropped up again and again at the 2025 UK Real<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":853535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1790,144420],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-853534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-theory","category-ukreiif"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}