Increasing the Occupancy Rate

Question: What can building owners do to increase occupancy rates? Answer: The economic downturn in the current commercial real estate has led the building owners to cut down rents and offer incentives to attract tenants. It has become difficult to keep the vacancy rates low considering the decline in the economic situation. Most of buildings that are leased out on a long term basis do not pose a threat during the economic recession. The problem crept up when these leases expired and the vacancy rate started increasing. To keep this vacancy rate, the landlords are forced to tempt the tenants to occupy the vacancy. But this tempting and luring of the real estate managers have led to increased operation cost which in turn reduces the companys revenue and profit. So in this respect what is most important is to develop an effective marketing strategy to pull up the real estate from the economic distress. In this regard what is important is that the tenants must be lured to occupy the vacant spaces. The real estate company must offer financial incentive scheme to enable the tenants to find the suitable accommodation that matches their needs. By this scheme, the tenants are encouraged and assisted to occupy space with all benefits including incentives and financial support when moving home by this scheme. (Cornwall.gov.uk, 2015) The increase in the occupancy can be increased by organizing social media marketing. This type of marketing targets a larger audience and thereby increases the awareness of the real estate company. The social media marketing can be done through several social media websites like the facebook, twitter and LinkedIn etc. For example, Facebook has a popular real estate app that gives the customer the ability to network with numerous real estate agents on facebook. Twitter can be used to boost the fan base by increasing the follower and thus engage the followers to analyze the respective real estate company. For example, successful twitter marketing had been done by Rick Buncick who is a realtor. (Patterson and Patterson, 2014) The main aspect of the economic slowdown regarding the real estate market is the unavailability of credit. So here the banks must relax their requirement of home loans thereby increasing the occupancy rate and attracting more home buyers. For example recently there was a reduction in mortgage insurance premiums for FHA loans which gave the residents more buying power and this helped to boost the housing market. Another important aspect is the role of connectivity in the real estate that needs to be catered in order to increase occupancy rate. People have become sophisticated and their demand for houses depends on the high speed communications within the complex. Technology plays an important role when it comes to commercial housing market. Today spec digital buildings are constructed to attract more tenants. (Lewis, 2015) Other activities that the building owner can do to increase occupancy rate is by offering television subscription to the residents and by compensating those residents who refer new tenants. By these ways occupancy rates can be augmented. The year ahead is predicted to bring about an optimistic condition regarding the housing market by improving house prices, home sales, rates of interests and the recent relaxation of lending standards. Moodys Analytics reveal that there can be an expected increase in the new and existing house sales by 20 per cent in 2015. (market, 2015) References Cornwall.gov.uk, (2015).Tenant Incentive Scheme - Cornwall Council. [online] Available at: https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/housing/council-housing/your-tenancy/tenant-incentive-scheme/ [Accessed 4 Mar. 2015]. Lewis, S. (2015).Connectivity: The Key to Luring Tenants in the Real Estate Market of Tomorrow. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.sior.com/docs/default-source/digital-advertising/Connectivity_The%20Key%20to%20Luring%20Tenants%20in%20the%20Real%20Estate%20Market%20of%20Tomorrow%20by%20Stephen%20E%20Lewis.pdf?sfvrsn=0 [Accessed 4 Mar. 2015]. market, 5. (2015).5 economists forecast the 2015 housing market | Inman. [online] Inman.com. Available at: https://www.inman.com/2015/01/22/5-economists-forecast-the-2015-housing-market/ [Accessed 4 Mar. 2015]. Patterson, M. and Patterson, M. (2014).Real Estate Marketing Ideas for Social Media | Sprout Social. [online] Sprout Social. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/real-estate-marketing-ideas-social-media/ [Accessed 4 Mar. 2015].