Datafication of Commercial Property Markets: Using Accessibility and Rental Value Data to Estimate Future Performance of Commercial Properties

Abstract

The commercial property market has been hit by e-commerce and COVID-19. These have led to increasing void periods, vacancies and business closures among other market occurrences. These occurrences require market actors to make strategic decisions on the future use of these spaces. One response to understanding the future of commercial property spaces is through analysing the rental value performance and the links (streets) connecting the properties within a defined city boundary. This study analyse street network to compute accessibility index via spatial configuration technique. The computed street data (accessibility integration) and observed changes in rental values for 14,570 commercial property units of a medium-sized UK city were analysed, digitalised and visualised using GIS choropleth maps. The variables (that is, accessibility and changes in rental value) were adopted in ranking property locations into future suitability for commercial purposes. Results show that almost 40% of the investigated properties require change of use for optimum utilisation the property spaces. The study contributes to the application of spatial configuration technique in analysing real property markets for efficient planning and management of urban spaces.