Fibre-up for success: How to stay relevant in the commercial property market
By Bob Irwin, Sales Director, Triangle Networks
Staying relevant in a changing market, that’s the challenge for any and every business, it always has been, and it always will be. But right now, the commercial property market is undergoing one of the most significant periods of upheaval in living memory.
COVID changed everything, we know that and there’s no benefit gained from going over this same ground time after time. But we’re now in a position where those in the commercial property sector are faced with some stark realties and this change is something that the sector must be very reactive to.
Home and hybrid working removed the need for shared spaces and organisations. Now if companies are feeling as though their investments in office spaces aren’t paying dividends, they will leave. This presents a challenge for property professionals to make their portfolios as commercially viable as possible.
There are all kinds of thought pieces and predictions being made around purchasing strategies, the benefits of four-day weeks and the amalgamation of multiple spaces into joint collaborative spaces. But what I find interesting, is that people aren’t talking about connectivity.
Connectivity is a fool proof way of ensuring the commercial viability of a space for years to come. You can have the finest building, in the most buzzing cosmopolitan part of town and all the free tea, coffee and networking sessions in the world. But if that building isn’t pre-wired with a bulletproof internet connection, then who’s going to want to work there in this day and age?
Whether it’s static or hybrid, the modern workforce now needs two key things. It needs stability and it needs flexibility. While on first glance these may feel like opposing forces, they are in fact two sides of the same coin. You need stability to be flexible and you need flexibility to be stable. The best and most futureproof way of achieving this through installing gigabit full-fibre cabling.
If you can market your property as gigabit ready, you’re already adding value for potential tenants. Not to forget significantly upping the value for your existing ones – you’ve got to keep those existing customers happy!
Keeping those tenants happy is then going to help you secure more longer-term rental. As it’s giving those workers the tools they need to be flexible and stable. Increased virtual collaboration, for example, puts massive strain on internet usage. But with full-fibre, that’s not a problem.
Then you’ve got your ‘landlord’ costs. As a property manager, building owner or landlord, pre-wiring your buildings with full-fibre reduces solicitor costs for wayleaves – keeping yours and your tenants’ costs down. There’s also no monthly cost until services go live – this mitigates the risk placed on the landlord. In the case you have empty units for a period, you don’t have to pay for the connection. The infrastructure is just sat there waiting for the tenant when the do arrive.
Then when they do arrive, there’s a shorter lead time for making the connection live, meaning tenants can just move in and get on with things!
That last point, that’s the ultimate freedom for the workforce, the ability to perform their day to day completely uninterrupted. Whether that’s in a permanent office, a shared space, a collaboration hub, if you’re building gives people the means to get to work seamlessly, without hassle or interruption… that’s the golden ticket.
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