Posted: 27 Jun 2008 12:00 AM CDT
Each year, Jones Lang LaSalle publishes a report on 'real estate transparency' that covers 82 countries. in their latest study, Canada was found to be the global leader!
Transparency is an economic concept that measures the amount of valid information that a buyer is able to access about a market. Transparency is an essential prerequisite for a free and efficient market.
The Jones Lang Lasalle Global Real Estate Transparency Index
looked at five key attributes of real estate transparency - performance measurement, market fundamentals, listed vehicles, legal and regulatory environment, as well as the transaction process.
For investors a high degree of transparency means that there is less risk. Laws are consistently applied and interpreted. Professionals have high ethical standards and accurate comparable market information is available.
For sellers of real estate there is also good news because a more efficient and transparent market will attract investment. The inflow of capital drives up prices. There is value in quality.
Congratulations to Canada's commercial real estate professionals - world leaders in their field!
Posted: 13 Jun 2008 12:00 AM CDT
In their technology quarterly, the Economist has an article on Building-Information Modeling (BIM). The article describes how designers are using technology to design new buildings. Rather than using Computer Aided Design (CAD) to create 2D drawings, these designers are using intelligent 3D models to assemble virtual buildings before the real ones are built.
There are several advantages to designing in 3D
The 3D design process reduces construction costs by providing a more accurate and precise set of documents from which to build. The number of issues that need to be resolved during construction are reduced. 'Extras' charged by contractors for onsite changes should be virtually eliminated. As an additional bonus, the ongoing maintenance of the building will be simplified due to the accurate 3D model that represents all of the systems in the building and includes full specs and parts lists.
BIM was first utilized for highly complex buildings, but is now becoming commonplace for more conventional buildings. Architects are finding substantial cost savings in the design process as well as in the reduction of construction costs.
Now to the question posed in the title of this post: should we create BIM models of existing buildings? There would certainly be advantages to having a 3D model with integrated system specifications. Ongoing maintenance costs could be reduced and the cost of future design changes should be lower if other designers can reuse these models. At Space Database, we have found that there are significant cost savings to be had from the creation and ongoing management of a conventional set of 2D CAD drawings as well as in the indexing and archiving of old technical drawings. Would there be sufficient additional savings to justify the cost of a full 3D model?
A 3D building survey would be expensive and it would require many different disciplines to model all of the various systems. It is unlikely that the ongoing operational cost savings alone would justify the creation of a 'post-construction' BIM model for most buildings.
But the situation may soon change. Software tools are improving, so the creation of models will become cheaper. The availability of ready-made 3D technical equipment and components from vendors will further simplify the process. The emergence of open marketplaces and open standards such as Google's 3D Warehouse will add more value to 3D information.
In the meantime, landlords should find out if any of their consultants are using BIM software for projects in their properties. It would be good to know if there are existing models out there.
For further reading, here is the Wikipedia article on Building Information Modeling.
A corporate web marketing strategy used to be quite straight-forward: put up a website and create the content . When internet users searched for you or for the services that you provide, you would expect them to find you and read your marketing information. Your website would define your online reputation.
Today, the situation is more complex. Now that 13% of internet users are also content creators, chances are that not all the content about your company is created by your company!
Here's an example. Everybody hates the phone company. Prices are high and service is terrible. Try this. Google "Customer Service Bell Canada" and Google "Customer Service Rogers". Sure, the first few results are corporate phone company web pages, but even on the first page of results, you get several pages like
Why I Hate Bell Mobility and Customer Service Nightmares | Boycott Rogers!.
As the growth trend of user generated content continues, it won't be long before the critics of these phone companies dominate the results page and the actual corporate sites will be on page three or four.
The point is that companies are losing control over their reputations. Reputations are increasingly defined by the public on the web. The management of brand reputation is slipping out of the hands of companies and into the hands of customers.
