Assessing facade value - how clients make business cases in changing real estate markets

RELEVANCE: The value of any intervention in the built environment is most relevant for the stakeholders that are investing in it. For them all costs need to be balanced with benefits not necessarily directly financial, but adding value to the performance of the accommodated organization. Business cases contain performance criteria like competitive advantage (branding the organization), productivity (optimally supporting users of the building), profitability (on organizational level) and sustainable development (monitoring the ecological footprint). In the changing real estate markets – from supply-driven to demand-driven and with increasingly higher vacancy rates – priorities in decisions about buildings have been shifting. PURPOSE: This paper elaborates on how (a) the trends in real estate markets and (b) changing priorities in decision making affect the quality demand for buildings and their facades. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This paper is based on research of the Real Estate Management chair in general (market analysis, transformation trends, conceptual frameworks) and more specifically on decisions about university campuses in the past 10 years (14 campuses and 57 buildings assessed). FINDINGS: This paper provides both conceptual frameworks to assess the (added) value of interventions in the built environment for the client and their (changing) priorities in the brief for buildings and their facades.