Real estate on the board agenda: from lease to leverage

How leases, data and energy flexibility are reshaping business strategy

Commercial real estate is no longer just a question of occupation, rent and maintenance. As buildings become more connected, data-led and energy-active, the portfolio is increasingly shaping business resilience, compliance, cost, sustainability performance and business value.

For both owners and occupiers, the way a building is structured commercially, including lease provisions, retrofit responsibilities, data access, and exposure to cyber and energy risk, increasingly determines its strategic value to the business. Meanwhile, smarter infrastructure, on‑site generation, storage and flexible demand management are opening up new opportunities for buildings to actively contribute to resilience, performance and value creation.

This roundtable brings together senior leaders from across real estate, occupier organisations and proptech to discuss how commercial models, operational capability and governance need to evolve if organisations are to unlock greater value, resilience and performance from their real estate.

Key topics for discussion include:

• What would cause a board to treat real estate as a strategic asset class rather than an operational overhead?
• What does a future-fit real estate model look like?
• How far do current leases and operating models support, or block, smart building deployment, retrofit and energy optimisation?
• What risks are boards underestimating in relation to power dependency, cyber exposure and legacy property arrangements?
• How should landlords, occupiers and service providers share cost, risk and upside in a more intelligent building environment?
• What do owners and occupiers really know about the energy (and carbon) data associated with their assets and how are they effectively managing in the absence of reliable data?
• What role does AI play?

The session will be followed by lunch and networking, which will provide plenty of opportunity for further discussion.

Speakers:

• Ben Law, partner, commercial real estate, Penningtons Manches Cooper
• Oliver Kidd, partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper
• Mark Jenkinson, founder, Crystal Associates, and co-lead, Tech London Advocates PropTech

If you have any queries, or to register your interest, please email Kelly Ray.