Mixed-use properties: meeting all needs
Whether living, shopping, working or leisure, city life is increasingly happening under one roof. Mixed-use properties are therefore playing an ever greater role. Offering significant diversification and return potential, they are also attractive to investors.
Buildings which bring everything together under one roof are special: Employees arriving on their bikes can park their vehicle in the bike garage, take a shower in the locker room, proceed to their office, share their lunch break with colleagues in one of the food court restaurants, visit the gym after work and may even use the whirlpool in the spa area to unwind after a busy day.
Worldwide, more and more of these buildings are cropping up in the centres of densely populated cities like New York, London or Singapore. Thanks to their many uses, they are referred to as mixed-use properties. For the most part, existing office buildings are combined with apartments, restaurants, leisure facilities, retail or hotels. Providing smart solutions to inner-city space problems, such combinations fit right in with current trends.
Getting the “work-live-play” balance right
As well as meeting urban needs, mixed-use properties also offer real estate investors fresh investment and return opportunities. A glance at the trends in urban areas shows the potential of the properties:
- Rising urban density: Over half of the world’s population lives in cities – with United Nations forecasts predicting a rise to 68 percent of the global population by 2050. Urban planners thus focus on dense architecture to make the best use of limited space in city centres. Promoting denser use of buildings, mixed-use properties represent a smart solution to this challenge.
- Proximity is gaining importance: Cities are aiming to reduce car traffic in central areas, with city dwellers willing, and being encouraged, to do as much as possible on foot or by public transport. This means that that people want to work, shop, practise sport or go to a restaurant where they live.
- Fluid boundaries between work and private life: Today, growing numbers of employees are more flexible when it comes to organising their working hours. Boundaries between work and private life are increasingly disappearing, driving demand for infrastructures that offer multiple options in one place.
- Corona effect: Pandemic-related lockdowns and the associated shift to remote working have clearly demonstrated that office space will have different uses and structures in the future. There is more room for new uses, and new needs have arisen. If you arrive at the office early in the morning, you will appreciate a bakery or cafeteria in the building. If you are having a long day, you might want to go out for dinner after work.
- Governments offer incentives: Compact architecture is on the agenda. In Austin (USA), for instance, owners who convert their buildings into mixed-use properties will soon pay lower taxes.
Fresh diversification opportunity for investors
Investors can choose from a variety of investment opportunities, among them real estate funds that hold mixed-use properties in their portfolios. These vehicles are particularly attractive to investors focussing on properties in prime inner-city locations. Mixed-use properties are a logical choice if they want to generate more added value in this segment and exploit return opportunities. After all, mixed-use properties increase diversification in real estate portfolios, offering stronger protection against economic slumps and associated defaults on rent payments.
Mockingbird Station: an example of “work-live-play”
Mockingbird Station is located in midtown Dallas, Texas, and offers residential living spaces, workplace options and restaurants as well as shopping and entertainment.
Owners maintain competitive edge by investing
The mixed-use trend also offers fresh opportunities for real estate owners, even if this means new investments at first. Due to changing space and time requirements as well as changing needs, tenants are placing new demands on residential, office and commercial space. Companies, in particular, are increasingly looking for properties which offer their employees more than office space. Buildings suitable for multiple uses under one roof provide an attractive alternative, effortlessly combining activities like working, shopping, lunch and sport.
These new demands require owners to be more flexible. While buildings used to be dedicated to one single purpose for decades, today they require an investment plan that addresses tenants’ needs as well as the property’s lifecycle. This takes time and money. However, conversion to a mixed-use property offers owners the opportunity to have a positive impact on location quality and maintain a strong competitive position among both tenants and users.
AFIAA Global strategy reflects current trends
In the future, the above-mentioned trends will also be reflected in the strategy pursued by the AFIAA Global investment group. While city centre locations and the focus on office use will remain at the core of the strategy, a wider range of uses will be added. Introducing mixed-use properties will incorporate the "work-live-play" trend and, as a result, increase the resilience of the portfolio.
