Manage Properties & Portfolios
Placemaking
Towns and cities are engaged in the bid for investment and the bid for talent. Our placemaking team unlock the destination potential for clients and the people their places serve.
Creating places where people want to be
Today’s tenants want more than a place to work. They want spaces to discover real connection, community and productivity. Placemaking, once considered a "nice-to-have," is now a critical driver of value, employee’s expectations are higher than ever with the emergence of ‘experience as a service’ across a range of sectors. Building a community and creating places where people want to be is now a strategic imperative for both occupiers and landlords. When it comes to creating a sense of place, there is more to it than meets the eye.
At CBRE we take a strategic approach to creating and managing places. We deliver this through our discovery and audience-led approach to inform and define experience strategy. We factor in the physical and non-physical elements of a place, considering the key ingredients that come together to create a destination.
Placemaking: Driving Landlord Advantage
Driving success for tenants, landlords and investors
Placemaking as a landlord advantage
For landlords a robust placemaking approach offers a distinct advantage, making an asset more appealing to potential occupiers and incentivising current tenants to remain.
A thriving, engaged community adds value by building a vibrant and desirable environment. It also provides a direct pathway for integrating the social components of a real estate sustainability plan. Landlords who embrace placemaking directly assist investors in achieving their goals for social responsibility.
We understand that placemaking is about more than physical space; it's about the entire experience. It's about building places that resonate with people on a personal level, places where they feel connected, inspired, and engaged.
At CBRE, we are collaborating with our clients, acting as an extension of their team to curate engaging experiences that transform spaces into destinations that create value for both our clients and the communities we serve.
Trends and insights affecting placemaking
Collaboration is key
Community matters
Wellness at heart
Green spaces
Outdoor culture
Social value
Contacts
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European industrial and logistics investment reached €29.7bn in Q1-Q3 2026, up 7% YoY, the strongest first three quarters since 2022.
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UK retail investment totalled £1.5bn in Q3 2026, with retail parks accounting for 36% of volumes, while rents grew year over year across all three subsectors.
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UK long income capital values fell 1.4% in Q3 2026 and total returns were -0.1%, CBRE's UK Long Income Index shows.
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Central London office take-up rose 19% to 3.2m sq ft in Q3 2026, above the long-term average, while availability fell to 19.5m sq ft, its lowest since 2020.
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UK operational real estate investment hit £8bn in Q1-Q3 2026, up 31% year-on-year. Q3 volumes and yields for hotels, healthcare, pubs, leisure and self storage.
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UK Living attracted £1.9bn of investment in Q3 2026, bringing the year-to-date total to £8.8bn, less than 1% below the same period of 2025, CBRE reports.
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UK commercial real estate investment totalled £13.9bn in Q3 2026, 21% higher than Q2 2026, with £68.6bn transacted across the UK over the past 12 months.
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UK logistics take-up totalled 5.3m sq ft in Q3 2026 and net absorption reached 5.5m sq ft, a 12-month high, while the UK vacancy rate fell 53bps to 6.56%.
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