Overcoming the discrepancy in the office real estate market between the demand and supply side, through the intensification of emerging networks

An imbalance occurred within the Dutch office market between the demand and supply side. There is a gap between the qualitative demand and the quantitative demand. Besides this, the multidisciplinary environment and the conflicting interests are resulting in a transition of the risk evaluation of the stakeholders. Through adaptations in the labour market a new type of urban geography emerged, that consists of highly educated and creative workers that are clustering their activities in so-called communities (networks). The businesses and individuals are developing and applying new building and location determinants and these are affecting their location decision-making process. Parallel to this, there is the aspect of sustainable urbanization, in which there is a continuous search of cities, urban planners and policy makers to compose or define initiatives and strategies in which cities are trying to improve their competiveness, by attracting or retaining people who work in creative and knowledge-intensive sectors. This is resulting in a discrepancy.

From the investigation of the building and location determinants of both demand and supply side, changes occurred in the preferences of the highly educated and creative workers. The determinants accessibility, amenities, type of building, rental price and flexibility have substantially influenced the location decision behaviour of highly educated and creative workers who work in small and medium businesses at Strijp-S. Both sides categorize the following building and location determinants as important; dynamic environment, the image of the area and the contract type vs. contract duration. An important distinction between both sides can be recognized in the influence of the building and interrelated characteristics and the amenities. The derived results are supporting that the individualization, place identification and the emergence of networks are contributing substantially to the changes in the location decision behaviour. The imbalance can be overcome by a development strategy that entails both demand and supply. An intensification in collaboration and commitment of the supply side. Furthermore, by the integration in both the building and location of the determinants such as; flexibility, services/facilities, hospitality and diversity of companies. This could contribute substantially to municipalities and policy makers in the steering, stimulation and initiation of new office developments, that attracts highly educated and creative workers. Therefore acting as a catalyst for other companies, which is evident in the knowledge economy, to create an attractive dynamic metropolitan environment.