Understanding real estate’s legacy

EDITOR’S COMMENT I’ve been thinking a lot about legacy this week. First prompted by those most ridiculous remarks from Cruella Braverman about rough sleeping being a “lifestyle choice”, then by our own ESG Summit, held this week at the Ham Yard Hotel, and finally, of course, by the much-anticipated demise of WeWork as it filed for bankruptcy. Let’s start with Braverman – real name Suella. I’m sure I’m not alone in being absolutely flabbergasted by the home secretary’s comments around homelessness and the “blight” of tents on our streets. I couldn’t believe my ears, but it got me to thinking about our industry and the built environment’s role in helping tackle the issues surrounding it. EG was privileged to be able to support LandAid at our awards this year and we were encouraged to see how generous the audience was on the night. Every year, with support from the real estate sector, the charitable body is able to invest more than £2m to help end youth homelessness. According to LandAid, there are some 129,000 16-24 year olds that are homeless or at risk of being homeless in the UK. I imagine many of you reading this have children in that age bracket. Could you imagine them on the streets, sleeping rough tonight? In this weather? Can you imagine anyone wanting to do that? Me neither. As usual, I find myself disappointed by our politicians but encouraged by our sector. This is a sector that knows it can do something to help create more places for people to call home. This is a sector that knows it can create safer places for vulnerable people. It can’t fix it overnight, but it sees the issue and it doesn’t blame. It tries to help. Sometimes through donation, sometimes through development. Even the disaster that was Home REIT tried to do something to solve the issues. It deviated from its initial intention, but someone out there in our industry is going to get it right. I know that. And I know that because I truly believe that so many in this industry want to leave a legacy of care or positive impact. They want a legacy that real estate fixed things. And we saw that at our ESG Summit this week as individuals from across the sector packed the venue to find out more about how it could have a positive impact on the planet through the work it does. And then there is WeWork. Its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing came as no real surprise to anyone, except maybe Adam Neumann, whose almost comical comments on the proceedings distanced himself from any of the firm’s woes. His “with the right strategy and team, a reorganisation will enable WeWork to emerge successfully” comments left me wondering whether he has the hubris to “rescue” the company himself. Stranger things have happened. Back to those legacy ponderings. What will WeWork’s be, I wonder? Will it be the story of Icarus? The firm that flew too close to the sun, got carried away with initial success, forgot about the importance of governance and just a little bit of humility? Or will it be a story about bravery and trying a different approach? A big part of me wants it to be the former as it makes for a much better story, but as long as the lesson is learnt that governance and a decent dose of humility are vital when it comes to sustainable business, I hope its legacy will be that it shook things up a little bit. WeWork did change the office market. IWG and others may have offered similar services, but they didn’t create a recognisable brand to the same extent as WeWork did. Its demise will be sad, of course. People will lose out. People will lose their jobs no doubt, landlords will lose rent, banks will see a diminishing return on their investment. But WeWork really has changed the office sector. It has forced more property owners and businesses to think about what workspace is, how it feels, what it does. And that can only be good for the real estate sector as a whole. So perhaps bad things – Braverman, real estate’s carbon footprint and WeWork’s demise – happen for good reasons. Failure almost always leads to a solution. It’s just up to us to learn and be better. To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews