The Future of Commercial Property: Key Takeaways for Surveyors

The conversations at this year’s RICS UK&I Commercial Property Conference felt different. Less about bold predictions or shiny new ideas, and more about taking an honest look at where the profession really is.

Not just in terms of markets and numbers, but in how commercial property is changing under economic pressure, shifting social expectations, and a growing skills gap across the industry. There wasn’t one big takeaway or neat conclusion. Instead, a set of connected themes kept coming up around risk, resilience, value, and what surveyors are increasingly being asked to do in a much more complicated landscape than even a few years ago.

From global market pressures to regeneration and social value to the future skills the profession needs, one thing became clear: surveying today is less about isolated assets or spreadsheets and more about judgement, context, and giving confident advice when the path ahead isn’t always clear.

It’s no surprise that market conditions dominated much of the discussion. RICS and JLL data shows the UK’s tax-to-GDP ratio climbing to a historic 38.3 percent, alongside downgraded growth forecasts. Inflation may be easing, but not enough to shift expectations around interest rates, which are still expected to stay higher for longer.

Investment activity tells a similar story. UK commercial property transactions currently sit at £26.9bn, well below both five- and ten-year averages. Offices account for £6.1bn, industrial for £4.7bn, and retail for £4.6bn. Capital value growth is slowing too, falling from 2.9% year-on-year to a projected 1% by early 2026, with offices expected to move into negative territory. Even rental growth, which has held up until now, is starting to soften.

For surveyors, these are practical realities rather than distant headlines, influencing inspections, valuations, negotiations, and how risk is discussed with clients.

One of the clearest trends discussed was the growing divide between prime and secondary assets. Office vacancy rates have risen to 9%, almost double the 4.6% seen pre-Covid. Rental growth forecasts underline the split, with +1.7% expected for prime offices, compared to –3% for secondary.

This creates very different conversations depending on the asset. Surveyors are increasingly helping owners of secondary stock make realistic decisions, whether that’s investing to reposition, exploring alternative uses, or accepting that values may need to adjust.

While some parts of the market are struggling, others are clearly gaining traction. RICS projections show stronger prospects for data centres, aged-care facilities, and prime industrial, while secondary retail and offices continue to lag behind.

For surveyors, this means working with asset types that may not have been mainstream a decade ago. It also means developing a deeper understanding of operational needs, resilience, energy requirements, and long-term performance, not just headline yields.

Looking ahead, the market isn’t so much declining as it is fragmenting. Over the next three years, industrial returns are projected at around 9.1%, retail close to 9.6%, while offices sit nearer 5%.

The role of the surveyor here is crucial. Clients need help separating assets with genuine growth potential from those facing longer-term structural challenges and making decisions based on evidence, not optimism.

As highlighted by insights from RICS’ Tarrant Parsons and JLL’s Adam Challis, this more uneven market demands sharper judgement and clearer advice than ever before.

Regeneration was another major theme, particularly how difficult (and important) it has become. Andy Starkie from Inner Circle Consulting described local authorities as operating “in the eye of the hurricane”, facing rising costs, stretched public services, higher interest rates, and lower investor confidence.

For commercial surveyors and property professionals, this is the backdrop shaping viability appraisals, funding discussions, land assembly, and delivery timescales.

Starkie’s key message was simple but powerful: regeneration works best when places are treated as whole systems, not a series of disconnected projects. Leadership, funding, delivery models, long-term vision, and local capacity all need to align. When they don’t, progress stalls – something many surveyors see firsthand.

The EMD Cinema/Soho Theatre in Walthamstow showed what this joined-up approach looks like. Social and cultural value were built in from the start, alongside job creation, skills development, and community involvement. Risk was shared through smart land deals, and design choices focused on heritage and long-term use.

The takeaway for surveyors is clear: social value is no longer a vague aspiration. It’s increasingly shaping viability, funding, and how success is judged.

The wider panel reinforced this shift. Examples showed how workplaces, public spaces, and neighbourhoods are being redesigned to rebuild local identity and community connections. Success is no longer measured only in financial terms but in how places are used and experienced day to day.

That has real implications for property professionals, who are now expected to understand how design, accessibility, and community use influence long-term asset performance.

The Festival Gardens case study brought these ideas into focus. Delivering up to 800 new homes, including affordable and extra-care housing, required early investment in remediation and infrastructure, careful phasing, and a strong focus on placemaking.

It also highlighted familiar challenges: planning pressure, balancing public value with commercial reality, and creating a regeneration premium that holds up over time. All areas where surveyors play a key advisory role.

The final theme cut close to home. Simon Rubinsohn, Chief Economist at RICS, shared findings from the RICS Surveying Skills Report 2025, which show skills shortages across almost every surveying discipline, from commercial real estate to valuation, building surveying, and project management.

In practice, this is showing up as capacity issues, rising costs, lower morale, missed opportunities, and reduced innovation. For many surveyors, it means heavier workloads and less time to invest in new ways of working.

Attracting younger people into the profession matters, but it’s only part of the solution. The panel stressed the need for clearer career pathways, better visibility of what surveying actually involves, stronger mentoring, and more accessible routes into the industry.

Just as importantly, there was strong agreement around upskilling existing surveyors. This isn’t about starting from scratch but about adapting, building confidence in digital tools, strengthening advisory skills, and keeping pace with client expectations around data, sustainability, and reporting.

Taken together, the conference painted a clear picture. Markets are becoming more uneven, regeneration is being judged on real-world outcomes, and skills shortages are reshaping how work gets done. At the same time, expectations of surveyors are rising. Clients want clearer judgement, stronger evidence, and advice that reflects the full picture – financial, social, technical, and long-term.

That puts pressure on how surveyors work day to day. When workloads are heavy and scrutiny is high, having clear, consistent data and defensible reporting is essential.

At GoReport, we see this shift across businesses of all sizes. Surveyors aren’t looking for technology for technology’s sake. They want practical tools that reduce friction, support better judgement, and free them up to focus on the value they bring to clients.

If you’d like to see how digital reporting can support clearer advice and more resilient workflows, you can explore GoReport by booking a demo to see how it works in practice.