The stereotype image of the video gamer is someone rooted to a sofa while a TV flickers in a darkened living room or they’re up in their bedroom gazing fixedly at a PC screen while jabbing at mouse and keyboard.

However, it seems that video gaming is moving from solitary pastime to spectator sport with the emergence of ‘eSports’– and this is could be good news for property landlords.

Last year, the eSports market grew to $1.1bn. That was year-on-year growth of about 26% and the sector is forecast to jump up to around $2.3bn within three years according to Forbes. Growth is also being fuelled by the competitive nature of gaming: in 2019, Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite offered prize money of more than $100m for competitive tournaments.

And like mainstream sports, the best players of these games are also attracting an audience. First, this was through online platforms like YouTube and Twitch but now it’s moving to physical spaces ‘game arenas’ where you pay to watch and learn from the best players who are often competing as part of corporate sponsored teams.

And, like regular sports, if you prefer to play rather than watch there are smaller centres. In London this trend has seen the expansion of the Belong Gaming Arenas introduced by the retailer, Game, to sit alongside their traditional retail stores, and for Wanyoo to acquire their first UK gaming café on Charing Cross Road. Wanyoo is Asia’s largest gaming café chain with 1,000-plus cafes in more than 50 cities.

Revenue streams are driven by playing fees – typically £5-7 an hour – or the cost of admission if you’re watching your gaming heroes in arenas such as Gfinity eSports arena in Fulham Broadway. And, of course, there’s lots of scope for adding on food and drink offers.

On average, Wanyoo’s gamers stay in venues for 3-5 hours. While audience dwell times are shorter, the game developers are looking at how they can embed advertising in the same way that you have hoardings around a pitch in a televised football game with companies such as Bidstack bridging the gap between game developers and advertisers.

And the cross-fertilisation of the digital and real worlds doesn’t stop there: celebrities like Michael Jordan, Drake and Gareth Bale have made substantial investments into the eSports sector.

The good news for landlords is that these eSport centres don’t have any particular property requirements other than size; they have taken units on high street locations and shopping centres, and are not too precious about ground, first floor and basement spaces!

The global eSports audience is now estimated to be around 450m people and, of course, many of the gamers who cut their teeth on Counter Strike, Quake and SuperMario more than 20 years ago are still playing today so the sector has a strong demographic profile.

And, if you’re not sure that eSports are here to stay then consider this: they’re under consideration for inclusion at forthcoming Olympic Games.

Even as far back as the late 1940s, the Swiss architect Le Corbusier was a vocal critic of the world’s first full air-conditioned glass tower, the UN Secretariat in New York, attacking it as unsuitable for the local climate. But the gleaming aesthetics took hold a city’s global credentials are often judged by the height and mass of its glittering skyline.

But the problems of regulating the temperature of glass buildings go back further than that, with a visit to London’s Crystal Palace a very different picture than the beautiful sketches we see depicting the Great Exhibition. The reality was of huge canvass curtains hanging around the interior to keep the giant greenhouse from overheating – something that proved horribly difficult to control – and blocking out much of the building’s glass aesthetic and natural light.

According to The International Energy Agency, the built environment produces around 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions, with the energy used on cooling alone now accounting for a chilling 14% of all energy use. As temperatures rise, so air conditioning needs to work harder, using not only more energy but increasing the wear and demand on systems with the likely result of shortening their lifespan.

As we have seen with the New Routemaster buses in London, the simple act of opening a window and letting in a breeze can be more pleasant, more reliable and more popular than air-conditioning, not to mention more eco-efficient. But the realities of big city noise and air pollution are an obstacle in applying this to many new office buildings, despite an estimated energy saving of around 60-70%.

We are conscious to plastic bags, excess packaging and littering the oceans, with changes in awareness bringing about major changes in habits. But what about the spaces we work in? The technology exists to build more energy-efficient buildings – and many landlords and developers we speak to in the early stages of their projects express an enthusiasm and desire in attaining a BREEAM rating – but the big question hanging over the conversation has been whether occupiers would care enough to put their money where their sustainably statements are. The latest research from CoStar answers that question with a resounding yes.

Over the last decade, BREEAM-rated buildings have attracted a significant premium, with an average increase in value of £374 psf since 2009, almost double the national market average of £196 psf.

The UK has around 1,700 office buildings with a BREEAM rating, with London hosting about half of them with just over 800 accreditations, making up about 3.5% of the Capital’s total office inventory. That percentage is the highest in the country and includes one of the world’s most sustainable offices, Bloomberg Place, where technology and innovation include smart ventilation, water conservation and half a million bulbs of efficient LED lighting.

In second place for numbers is the South-East with just over 150 buildings, although that accounts for just 1% of the total office inventory. In percentage terms it’s Wales that takes second place with 2.1%, followed by the North East and Northern Ireland, both around 1.5%.

It should be noted that these buildings are usually not 100-storey crystalline towers and tend to use materials other than glass and steel. But if we are to continue building upwards to cope with increased capacity, perhaps the answer lies in birthplace of the skyscraper, New York City. The origins of the world’s most recognisable skyline were in tall buildings of brick and stone that are no less striking than contemporary glass structures: no-one could accuse the Empire State or Chrysler Buildings of being inconspicuous or, in today’s terms, non-iconic. Could reinterpretations using the materials of then with the design of today and the technology of tomorrow be the solution to tall cities and high efficiency?

So if the demand is there and backed by hard evidence that occupiers will pay significantly more for an environmentally-friendly workspace, why are we not building more efficiently more often? Perhaps the missing link is simple awareness in the property sector. If more landlords and developers were aware of the financial opportunity of efficient buildings, surely an increase in delivery would follow? When looking at the increased amenity given to buildings to attract higher rents (gyms, wellness suites, cafes, lounges, terraces, etc), landlords have shown that they are all in.

As agents, we are uniquely positioned to convey the message. With such willingness among occupiers to pay a premium, yet with each UK’s region’s extremely low supply of BREEAM rated workspace, there is huge potential to not only build, but also to upgrade existing office space, in way that makes sound financial sense, delivers greater ecological rewards and lays the foundations of a sustainable future for expanding cities.

In short, a win-win solution.

The recently refurbished Spectrum House is a large three-storey factory building with a broad façade of white render and black window frames that gives no indication of what lies beyond, where multiple self-contained units in various sizes are arranged around a rear courtyard. In all, the development extends to around 48,500ft² with the capacity for over 300 employees.

Mixing bright white décor with an industrial palette of hard edges – corrugated metal ceilings; black-painted steel columns; black doors and window frames – the aesthetic does a good job of capturing the essence of a warehouse workspace and is finished with rich oak parquet floors, suspended lighting and recessed kitchenettes in a modern grey with white metro tiles.

The development’s design allows tenants to keep their brand identity and independence while benefitting from a well-managed environment that includes 24-hour access, cycle storage and car parking spaces.

Second Skin has taken 1,236ft² on the ground floor of Spectrum House. From here, the company will treat its clients in a variety of bespoke treatment rooms created from a tailored and DDA-compliant fit-out.

A lease was agreed for 5 years at a rent of £48 per ft², with the fit-out costs and works borne by the landlord and a five-month rent-free period negotiated. Completion took place in early November.

Second Skin was founded in Perth, Western Australia in 1988 and is now the world leader in the design, manufacture and service delivery of custom made medical compression garments and dynamic splints for children and adults. The company has clinics in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK.

Constructed in 2014 by Great Portland Estates, 240 Blackfriars Road has completely redefined the immediate skyline and given new purpose to the busy intersection with Stamford Street and Southwark Street that connects Waterloo, London Bridge, Blackfriars and Southwark stations.

The large parallelogram form includes 220,000ft2 of high performance office space and sits like a giant crystal on the street, extruded up to 90 meters with cut away sections at street level and higher up to add to the public realm and to protect the views across the river.

The building’s glossy, glassy double height entrance façade gives way to voluminous lobby that recalls a contemporary art museum with lofty ceilings, subtle neutral tones and Jasper Morrison-designed Carrara marble benches scattered in seemingly random fashion in a modern interpretation of fallen columns at ancient archaeological sites

GTI Media has offices in London, Dublin, Oxford and New York. Formed around 30 years ago, the company is now the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of graduate and school leaver recruitment services including the UK’s largest graduate jobs website, the most-read careers publications on campus and holding events to increase work-readiness among students and help employers recruit early talent.

The company’s new offices on the first floor of 240 Blackfriars Road are at the southern end and look out over the street through full height full width angled windows that slope upwards and outwards from the building and into the air.

With its excellent architectural pedigree, sharp lines and responsive design, 240 Blackfriars has cemented itself as a successful local landmark and a striking addition to SE1’s ever-growing accumulation of high-quality commercial and residential architecture.

The postcode has undergone significant regeneration in recent years and has matured beyond its initial residential col-factor to become a destination office location with a distinctive local flavour including peerless London icons like Borough Market and Tate Modern, and with excellent connectivity to The City, West End, airports and beyond via Underground, Thameslink and National Rail

Colliers achieved a very reasonable rent on behalf of GTI Media Limited with a term until March 2024.

H&M has a long track record of integrating ethics into its business notably with its ‘Conscious Collection’ line of clothing and also through its sustainable supply chain strategy. But during London Fashion Week one of its stores in the capital was the venue for a ‘Boycott Fashion’ protest.

The irony - and perhaps inappropriateness - of this was further emphasised shortly afterwards when H&M announced the launch of a new clothing rental service aimed at making premium items available at an affordable price and extending the use and lifecycle of garments.

H&M isn’t the first retailer to announce this sort of initiative - Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, Scotch and Soda and Ann Taylor Loft have all launched subscription rental services this year -  but the negativity that the company is facing from the anti-fashion lobby has left its CEO, Karl-Johan Persson, exasperated. In an interview with Bloomberg, he warned that curtailing fashion retailing “may lead to a small environmental impact, but it will have terrible social consequences”. Perhaps not surprisingly, this only enraged his opponents further.

Britons buy more clothing than any other European country, and its estimated that £2.7bn is spent fashion that they only wear once so it’s not surprising that retailing is increasingly under scrutiny. And, of course, property has a similar challenge: the built environment is responsible for almost half of all carbon emissions in the UK.

So where property and retailing come together in the form shops it’s clear that we can make a difference in terms of how those spaces are created and operated. In London, major landlords such as Grosvenor, Shaftesbury and The Crown Estate are leading the way in this respect and retailers are responding to their lead.

In this context, it’s perhaps not surprising that streetwear brand Napapijri felt that Shaftesbury’s Carnaby Street was the right setting for its first London store. The brand recently launched ‘Infinity’: a 100% recyclable jacket that’s been made using recycled fishing nets and which you can ‘trade in’ after two years of use.

Given changing attitudes in society there is tremendous opportunities for retail and property to collaborate on sustainable responses to what shoppers demand. Hopefully, this week’s MAPIC retail property exhibition will generate many ideas which can support this process.

I went to a seminar organised by investment bank, Citi, recently that looked at investment trends in the F&B sector and inevitably in that environment and in the current climate, the conversation came up about big chains versus innovative independents - the latter increasingly outperforming the former.

In this context, it was great to have Billy Hookway from JKS and White Rabbit founder, Chris Miller, on the panel as, while very different, they share the same aim of achieving scale through repeated diversification rather than the more familiar tactic of simple replication. Both have finance or private equity expertise as a core part of the business but both are operators. Imbiba is another London-based investor/operator with multiple small brands under its banner. Perhaps this model could act as inspiration for some of the big chains which have the sites and the resources but seem to have run out of ideas - and customers.

It's undoubtedly more difficult to consistently come up with new ideas than it is to oversee a brand ‘roll-out’. However, if a business opens its door to new creative talent and sets itself up as investor as well as operator there is potentially an unlimited pool of ideas from which to choose.

It's certainly more in line with what customers want. Although restaurant groups have traditionally grown through faithful replication, the trend for some time has been for unique experiences.  And that’s ultimately why we’ve seen so many of the big brands fail recently.

Of course, there will always be room for a limited number of brands that can sustain ubiquity and be controlled at board level with a competent operational management firmly in place. But we’ve now seen that - outside the fast food and coffee sectors - that approach is increasingly unsustainable.

The independent sector, as ever, is where the innovation is, and that is what the customer wants.   The recent explosion of street food halls and similar formats are clear evidence of this- a response to demands for choice, quality and an experience- a reaction against boringness. 

So how can big institutional money tackle this challenge? While a board of accountants may be able to oversee a process of faithful replication,  growing a group while continuing to innovate is a completely different game and one you only get to play if you have the operational and creative expertise generally only found in the independent sector.

In London, for example, there are still numerous sites held by the big restaurant and pub groups that are considered ‘prime’ yet massively underperform in relative terms. This is to the detriment of customers, landlords and to the institutional owners of these businesses. Maybe it’s time for those groups to switch from ‘Operator Mode’ to ‘Investor Mode’ in certain cases. Instead of coasting along or selling the asset at a loss, perhaps they should first try partnering with an independent operator with proven success, who may hold the key to big profits but doesn’t have the funds for a big premium or the required capex.

In this scenario, everybody can win including landlords who retain the covenant strength of the ultimate owner of the asset.  In due course, these owners may find themselves with a stable of small, agile and innovative partners to invest in and work with, providing sites, staff, and capex and taking a share of the upside.  Deciding who to partner with is clearly the main consideration but if in doubt advice can be sought from people who know the sector intimately and have a firm grasp of the market.

Ultimately, as the trend increasingly veers towards independent talent, maybe that’s how the big money invested in the sector can ultimately get in on the action.

Demand appears stable, evidenced by above average take-up levels and reinforced by a summer of deal brokering, which saw more than 2m sq ft leased in July and August.

Given that London is experiencing a major shortage of quality new office stock, naysayers might conclude that vacancy is only falling because of constraints on new supply. So is there any hard evidence to show that demand is not only holding up, but going from strength to strength?

Financial services demand appears to surging but off a lower base than other sectors. The sector has accounted for 33% of demand in the year-to-date, compared to just 13% in the equivalent period in 2018. Much of this demand is like-for-like churn, with occupiers at best mirroring future space takes with current real estate obligations. Nevertheless, space is still being absorbed and not all of it is Grade A product.

But the real dynamo in the London economy remains the Media & Tech sector. During the past 12 months, the sector has seen its strongest net growth in the past 15 years.  

The trendiest locations for tech occupiers - Shoreditch, Farringdon and Clerkenwell - are now at record pricing levels for City Fringe submarket. And even where tech occupiers have gone further afield, big lettings to BT, Sony, Google and Facebook have further taken up any potential slack.

London Media & Tech occupation grew 8% year-on-year, and we’re seeing new tech clusters emerge within large-scale developments such as Battersea Power Station (Apple) and White City (Publicis).

The message is clear, London’s occupier market remains in rude health, despite the continuing structural, political and technological changes that are ongoing. Even the Square Mile is benefitting from the positive vibes. Media & Tech occupation in the Square Mile has raced ahead of the City Fringe markets this year - surging to more than 5m sq ft for the first time.