Methods for Evaluating Office Occupiersí Needs and Preferences

Corporate occupiers are among the most important interest group in the real estate business. Property sectorís whole value network: e.g. developers, investors and service providers are depended on the occupier organizations as well as their needs and preferences. In order to understand towards which direction the market is going, what new product to develop and which service should be maintained, ended or created, the key players in the business need to have a clearer view on the profile of their users and occupiers needs and preferences. This paper aims to investigate which methods are used by the property sector companies such as investors, developers, consultants and service providers in order to identify and evaluate their current and potential clientsí needs and preferences regarding workplace from the physical, virtual and social aspects. We also suggest other methods to be added to the list and offer ideas on methods, they could be using for different purposes / measures. Based on theme interviews with selected Finnish corporations and multidisciplinary literature review; the different kinds of methods for evaluating the space itself are investigated and presented. The paper presents an efficient and relevant classification of the methods, with a matrix form to summarize the findings and gives the final recommendation of the usability of different methods based on the findings. These recommendations emphasize and suggest which methods are to be used in order to capture various elements of workplace, on the physical but also virtual and social aspects.