Office space requirements: comparing occupiers' preferences with agents' perceptions

This paper reports the results from the first stage of a research project that examines changes in urban office occupiers' space requirements and their impact on the structure of urban office markets. The specific objectives of the project are to compare occupiers' trade-offs and preferences between submarkets in the Edinburgh market and to look at the way in which agents influence the process by which occupiers are matched to space in particular submarkets. The results discussed are based on two surveys: first we analyse a detailed survey of office occupiers in two office submarkets in Edinburgh; and second, office agents are surveyed. This allows us to compare their perception of occupiers' space requirements with those expressed by respondent occupiers. The results suggest that agents' knowledge of occupier preferences vary across submarkets and that, in particular, they are less well informed about occupiers' preferences in non-traditional submarkets.