博鱼体育集团

The future of work, continued....

WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani this week after suggesting employee engagement would dictate how often you go to the office, with the most engaged employees wanting to be back for the majority of the time.

His comments, made on the Wall Street Journal , are understandable and are likely shared by many executives. However, based on what we now know, the debate over how many days are the right number of days spent in the office for all workers is an oversimplification of the future of work.

博鱼体育集团 Frank's Lee Elliott, fresh from studying the responses of more than 400 global business leaders for the 2021 edition of , suggests most organisations know employees can be engaged or productive in either setting if it is conducive to the work they are doing. These leaders are now focussed on how to use technology to ensure those who choose to work remotely are not isolated or excluded.

Indeed, back in of (Y)our Space, we said new technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, automation and robotics 鈥� what we referred to then as next wave technologies 鈥� will force structural change across the global labour market. Work on the latest edition confirmed that these trends, though somewhat neglected in recent debates about the future of work, could have a more dramatic impact on the long-term nature of jobs and job creation than the virus itself.

The supply crunch, continued...

A new RICS for April has a gauge of house price inflation hitting its highest level . The survey, which reflects the proportion of surveyors reporting price increases, reached +75, up from +62 in March.

Many of the survey participants said the number of fresh listings arriving on the market is insufficient to match current levels of demand. Indeed, the net balance for new instructions fell to -4% in the latest results, down from +21% previously. Meanwhile, the average number of properties on estate agents鈥� books now stands at just 40, having briefly stood at 46 back in December.

Tom Bill unpicked this issue on Monday - there wasn鈥檛 the customary post-Christmas bounce in property listings in the UK this year. Instead, rising uncertainty over new Covid-19 variants, the logistical constraints of home-schooling and an expectation that the March stamp duty deadline would be missed all contributed to a slowdown in supply.

As a result, we are of the view that the supply crunch is a pandemic-related issue rather than anything deep-seated, and the property market will undergo a period of adjustment as supply and demand normalise.

The economic tennis ball

More evidence is emerging that the UK economy adjusted better to being in lockdown during the first quarter and that the recovery is taking hold.

Economic output just 1.5% in the first three months of the year, outperforming expectations, according to official figures. That leaves the economy 8.7% smaller than its pre-pandemic size.

Meanwhile online job adverts of their pre-pandemic February 2020 level on May 7 amid the reopening of the hospitality industry. Indeed, Britain's economy will bounce back from Covid-19 , putting the country at the top of the G7 growth league, according to outgoing Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane.

Variants continue to be a source of concern - see today's news that ten million people could have their second doses of coronavirus vaccines . The Times has on how worried you should be, and finds even if the variant does temporarily slow reopening, it shouldn鈥檛 significantly reverse it.

The future of travel

The pandemic has permanently altered global travel, Airbnb鈥檚 chief executive Brian Chesky suggested yesterday

"People are discovering that they don鈥檛 have to be tethered to one location to live and work,鈥� during the company's first quarter earnings call. He added that the company had seen a shift towards more expensive bookings: more trips that included entire families, more bookings of entire homes, and more non-urban destinations, according to the FT report.

This is already being felt in the holiday homes market, and the data we're seeing indicates purchasing activity is likely to rise in tandem with the easing of travel restrictions. Viewings of Portuguese properties via 博鱼体育集团 Frank鈥檚 website, for example, increased 18% in April compared to the previous month, amid speculation that a travel corridor would soon open up.

Luxury renting in Hong Kong

A house on 73 Mount Kellett Road on Hong Kong's Peak for a record HK$1.6 million ($206,000) a month, or about USD$2.5 million a year.

The deal further cements Hong Kong's crown as the world鈥檚 most expensive city in which to rent a luxury apartment. from Kate Everett-Allen indicates prime rents in Hong Kong averaged US$6.7 per sq ft at the end of 2020, meaning a tenant with a budget of US$10,000 per month would be able to rent less than 1,500 square feet.

Next come Singapore, London and Sydney, where US$10,000 rents between 2,500 and 3,000 square feet. Of the eight cities we track Dubai and Madrid offer the largest space in return for rent of US$10,000 per month 鈥� 4,800 and 5,000 square feet respectively.

In other news...

This week we launched our flagship M25 office market report, covering everything from sustainability, to life sciences and e-mobility.

Plus, Greenwich and Lewisham are attracting new residents through new modes of transport, regeneration and parkland strategies, writes Anna Ward. Now they must overcome an undersupply of housing.

Elsewhere: Fed officials on why inflation is , US weekly jobless claims hit , the scramble for sustainable business, pandemic ignites UK鈥檚 strongest in a decade, and finally, how a dearth of tourists Barcelona鈥檚 property market.

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