No word has defined events of the Covid-19 pandemic to quite the extent as “unprecedented”. But which real estate firms have had the most unprecedented period? EG trawled the latest sets of accounts to see which had used the word the most when describing events of the past year.
Coming in at league-table leading seven uses is IWG. Tellingly, chief executive Mark Dixon and his colleagues trotted out the term to describe factors both good and bad for their business – the challenges of 2020 and the economic downturn were unprecedented, sure, but so was demand for enterprise membership at IWG’s offices and the opportunity the company now has for growth. Maybe it all balances out.
Also keen on the term was Hammerson (six uses and a seventh in a material uncertainty clause from its valuer), Capital & Counties (five) and Shaftesbury (four).
And then there is one real estate company for which the use of the word hasn’t been quite such a novelty: LondonMetric. The company’s past two sets of annual results were littered with it – six uses in each – but chief executive Andrew Jones and his team were also using it long before Covid made it a cliché. Back in the company’s results statement for the year to 31 March 2019, management used “unprecedented” no fewer than five times, to describe low interest rates, demand for income from an aging population (twice), occupiers’ pricing power in leasing negotiations and uncertainties around Brexit. Not so unprecedented after all.
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