The doctoral dissertations of the former Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) and Aalto University Schools of Technology (CHEM, ELEC, ENG, SCI) published in electronic format are available in the electronic publications archive of Aalto University - Aaltodoc.
Aalto

The Future Commercial Real Estate Market – The Forces of Change, Influences and Preferences in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

Saija Toivonen

Doctoral dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology to be presented with due permission of the School of Engineering for public examination and debate at the Aalto University School of Engineering (Espoo, Finland) on the 9th of December 2011 at 12 noon.

Dissertation in PDF format (ISBN 978-952-60-4419-4)   [2851 KB]
Errata (in PDF format)
Dissertation is also available in print (ISBN 978-952-60-4418-7)

Note: The language of the dissertation is Finnish.

Abstract

The world is changing with accelerating pace. Continuity is replaced with temporality. This affects also the commercial real estate market. Commercial real estates can be seen inflexible in this new environment due to their nature. That is why it is inevitable to see into the future also in the real estate sector.

This research is examining the future commercial real estate market. The research aims to find the forces of change that affect the commercial real estate market and also to analyze the possible future effects of those forces on the commercial real estate market, especially in the Helsinki metropolitan area. In addition this research explores the views of actual market actors by investigating their opinions about important future forces and hopes for future commercial real estate. As well as the forces of change, also the preferences of the market actors can be seen important because they all shape the future.

The research is conducted by the help of research methods used in the future research field. The forces of change are investigated by a method called Environmental Scanning, while their possible effects are studied by the Futures Wheel method. The future hopes of the market actors are presented by using Images of Future. The study concentrates on office and retail premises.

According to the outcome gained it seems that the forces of change forming the future commercial real estate market are diverse by nature and connected to each other in different ways. The forces of change working in the commercial real estate market are much the same as in the rest of society. There are congruities among the possible effects of the forces but partly also contradictions. The market parties' future preferences for commercial real estate, for one, are in line with various forces of change.

Keywords: commercial real estate market, futures research, office and retail premises, real estate investment, occupiers, Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland

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© 2011 Aalto University


Last update 2012-01-18