EDITOR’S COMMENT I really wanted to use the opportunity I get every week to steal a moment of your attention to write about the joy of returning to a proper real estate event. Of seeing real people, in real life and remembering all great things that can happen when real estate gets together.
That joy came for me at last week’s JLL Property Triathlon, the first big gathering of real estate professionals for 18 months. It was so wonderful to catch up with so many people and to see the sector raise almost £200,000 for charity.
I really, really wanted to write about that, but I can’t.
As I write this, on my stand-up desk, with my two screens, in my spacious office, in my own home, I’m drawn to take a moment to think about how lucky so many of us are and how we might all want to pause for a moment – before the inevitable post-August rush begins – and feel grateful.
As I write these words, I’m going through the results of our second Race Diversity in Real Estate survey (published in next week’s issue) and again reading accounts of discrimination, micro-aggressions and exclusionary behaviour. One eye is also trained on the news, watching the constant flow of horrific stories from Afghanistan.
As I write, I can’t help but be thankful for the privileged and safe life I am able to live.
We have spent so much of the past year pondering on whether this mass working-from-home experiment forced on us by the global pandemic is going to bring about the end of the office and how employers will have to make sure offices are attractive places to work that enable collaboration, otherwise we will all want to stay at home, sitting in front of our Teams and Zooms meetings in our slippers.
We have worried about the death of the high street and come up with ideas to turn empty stores in to escape rooms, trampoline parks, and life sciences space.
We have all pledged to be net zero carbon by 2030, 40 or 50 and dipped our brush into a giant pot of green paint and washed it over whatever we can reach.
That last one is probably a bit unfair because the climate crisis is a very big and very real problem and we (individuals and the industry) really do need to do something about it. And I believe we actually can make a difference.
But if we step back from ourselves, for just one second, does having an office with cool collaborative space, some sofas and plenty of natural light really matter? Should we really be worried about how we are going to turn some empty space into the latest competitive socialising operation? Or should we, as a sector that does and can have a huge impact on its environment (from a sustainability and social perspective) and that has the ability to attract huge swathes of investment, be thinking bigger?
Should we be looking at the world today and wondering what role we can play to fix those big problems?
I know it’s an impossible question to answer, or at least is a “yes” that comes with a big “but” attached. But it is a question of priorities. And as we prepare to get back to what is increasingly feeling like “how it used to be”, one I find myself pondering on.
I believe in the real estate sector. I believe that it has great power. It is connected to every element of our lives and has the opportunity to be so many things. The big question is what.
So before we race back into September and the final term of 2021, take a moment and ponder: what is real estate’s priority?
Thoughts on an e-mail. You know how to find me.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
