British industry is throwing away £18 billion a year through inefficient use of its property assets, says a report out today (02 May).
“A Waste of Spaceâ€, prepared by leading economist Roger Bootle for RICS, reveals that companies could massively enhance their commercial performance and boost profits by up to 13% by exploiting property sale and leaseback deals, hot desking, eliminating unused space and challenging over-inflated rates bills.
Compared with almost obsessive interest in the housing market, it is staggering how little thought is paid by business to commercial property, currently worth around £400 billion in the UK and accounting for 34% of total business assets. RICS is calling on the government to get behind its Property in Business campaign and spread the message that businesses need to make their property work harder as it constitutes the second biggest outgoing after staff.
Even large corporations fail to recognise what is going on under their noses. 25% of major corporations have not discussed property at Board level for at least three years. Some even have “dark properties†- premises of which head office has no record.
For more information please visit www.rics.org.
(source: Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors - RICS)
