New Occupiers join IPD
The IPD Occupiers Databank continues to grow with new entrants so far this year including Novartis, The National Grid and Unicredit in the UK, and Sanofi Aventis and Societe Générale in France.

Legal and university sector benchmarking in the pipeline
Work is currently underway to establish legal sector and universities benchmarking groups, focused on building-level benchmarking and comparison with blue-chip peers. Both these groups will recognise the particular business drivers and accommodation needs of these types of occupiers.

New multinational benchmarking collaboration
A multinational benchmarking group is being established to develop reliable benchmarking for regional and global real estate managers. The pilot project will be kicked-off in May and focus initially on Europe (for more information see article two in this edition of Real Return).

UK service level measurement under development
IPD is always looking to develop the scope of its measurement services, and with a working group of clients is helping to develop a methodology for comparative service level measurement. This work follows a similar initiative in France and will help both in benchmarking service levels relative to other organisations and in explaining differences in service costs.

Service Charge benchmarking on the horizon
Service charges are one of the most contentious issues between landlord and tenant in the UK. The second edition of the RICS Service Charge Code is launched on May 4th and IPD aims to establish a Service Charge Benchmarking service this year with industry support. This initiative would help leading landlords and managing agents demonstrate their commitment to transparency and tenant relations, and would give tenants key feedback on how their service charges compare in the market.

For more information on the upcoming projects, please contact Andrew Hawkeswood.