Real estate research is the essential platform from which industry professionals make the most important decisions.

Analysis defines sentiment of assets, how capital moves and where it is deployed. Yet as the blurring of real estate and real assets continues, a blended place approach is required to future-proof the vitality of our spaces and places.

If the fabled words of Karl Marx weren’t enough to whet your appetite, then consider this quip from self-professed “urbanophile” Aaron M. Renn: “The mark of a great city isn’t how it treats its special places – but how it treats its ordinary ones.”

As our relationship with the built environment has evolved in recent years, we are in danger of losing sight of the most important aspect of our places. So how do we master this in practice?

Now, you might think that, in election season, this is a piece peppered with manifesto one-liners and who’s-promising-what for the property industry. On this occasion, however, it is worth exploring the fundamental landscape of real estate research, and what it now needs to encapsulate.

Having worked in the built environment for almost (gulp) fifteen years, I’ve been fortunate enough to spend time in commercial property research bridging the three siloed pillars; Offices, Retail and Logistics. The holy trinity! The three core real estate sectors that power growth and drive industry.

Critical research into specific assets and geographies underpin the release of capital and economic prosperity across the country. It has, however, become clear over recent years that treating one asset class in isolation, is like trying to play the guitar with five strings.