Office Markets and Public 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 structures50
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 1980s101
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 policies140
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