Flexible Market, Investment and Space Triangular Strategy for Office Investments

One of the emerging problems we currently face in the Netherlands is the high vacancy rates of office buildings. Along with the globally dynamic markets and financial crisis came the awareness for office vacancy as a risk for the functioning of office markets. Uncertainty in the investment and office market is much greater now than it has ever been. Demographic trends such as a shrinking labor force, changing ways of working by use of telecommunication possibilities, technological innovations may lead to an even stronger reduction in the demand for office space in the future. On the other hand, high demand for housing is another case because of the demographic changes such as ageing, a trend of decreasing household sizes, urbanization and immigration to big cities.Risk avoidance and risk management directly affect projects’ profitability. The flexibility concept, in terms of flexible space, flexible market and flexible financial models can allow investors to manage risks. This is why, including architectural designs which support flexibility and flexible decision-making processes in the real estate investment process is a necessity. Including flexible design effectively into office design and investment valuation processes could increase the value of office investments, by decreasing the risk of future vacancy. Buildings should be reused to meet new demands. Whereas there is a supply and demand mismatch in the office sector, office buildings should meet the requirements for new purposes.There is a knowledge deficiency of the costs and benefits of flexible design and future options as compared to conventional development strategies. Architectural design options to be created in the future by flexible design can be expressed financially. In this paper, the built environment is seen as a product of an ongoing, never ending design process, in which the environment transforms part by part. Office investments are not fixed and static. In today's conditions, flexible and variable design processes and products can create added value for offices. Office projects should be flexible enough to turn options into opportunities with a design potential.