Colliers International has produced reports on the utilisation of office space in Auckland CBD periodically since 1998, analysing trends in density, or space per person, and cost per person. This year for the first time we have expanded the study to include the CBD’s of Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton & Dunedin in addition to Auckland.
Over the years there has been growing discussion of issues suchas hot-desking and hotelling, whereby not every member of staff has their own workstation. While this has not developed to the extent that some commentators predicted in New Zealand, we have nevertheless recognised this trend by calculating costs and density per workstation rather than per person in this report. We suggest that this will not make a statistically significant difference, and that comparisons with previous surveys are still valid.
Key Findings
Overall, CBD occupational density in the five centres analysed is 15.9m2 per workstation and total annual occupancy cost per workstation is $7526.
There are significant variations between the centres. The highest density is in Wellington at 14.4m2 per workstation and the highest total occupancy cost per workstation is in Auckland at $8571.
Anecdotal comments from respondents suggest that the increased space allocation in Auckland for each workstation may reflect a reduction in staff numbers and an inability to dispose of surplus space, and does not necessarily represent a conscious effort to allocate more space to each workstation.
The data collected covers over 410,000m2 and 25,730 employees.
The survey only includes offices which have been leased between August 2008 and July 2010. It includes space where leases were renewed (i.e. no physical move took place) as well as space which tenants physically moved into during the period. It also includes committed leases in buildings to be constructed, or currently under construction.
We have drawn on a number of academic studies in preparation of this research. Quotes from these are italicised and a list of references is included in our report.
For our full comprehensive National Workplace Report, please send us an email and we will post you a copy today.
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Office Leasing,
Real Estate Management,
Character Space,
Valuation and Advisory Services,
Corporate Solutions,
Research & Consultancy,
Auckland Office,
Hamilton Office,
Wellington Office,
Christchurch Brokerage,
Wellington Valuation and Advisory Services,
Christchurch Property Management,
Auckland Property Management,
Wellington Property Management,
Christchurch Valuation and Advisory Services,
Corporate Solutions Wellington,
Corporate Solutions Auckland,
Dhilan Balia,
Alan McMahon