Factors Influencing Office Building Occupation Decision by Tenants ...

Yasmin Mohd Adnan, Md Nasir Daudaccessibility and clustering of up marketcommercial organisations and tertiaryemployment. Information is vastlycollected, processed and disseminated inthis area. Thus CBD is a highly dynamicplace that is normally associated with fastpace of life (Tang, Yeung, 1999).In Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur citycentre has taken on different definitionsin the hands of different stakeholders. TheCity Hall of Kuala Lumpur has definedthe area as encompassing the centralbusiness location covering an area of18,125,660.4 sq metres (see Figure 1).The property professionals, on the otherhand, have varied definitions. TheNational Property Information Centre(NAPIC), Department of Valuation andProperty Services, Ministry of Finance,Malaysia has identified the officebuildings location in Kuala Lumpur as:Central Business District (CBD), JalanAmpang (JA), Golden Triangle (GT),Within City Centre (WCC) and Suburban(SU) area. The Central Business District(CBD), identified as the older part ofKuala Lumpur city, was gazetted inaccordance with the Comprehensive PlanNo 1039 in 1970. The office buildingslocated within the area are mainly builtbefore 1980s although some buildingshave undergone refurbishments.The definition of Kuala Lumpur citycentre has now changed in line with thegovernment aspiration of the city as aworld class city. The centre which wasformerly referred to as CBD now includesareas bounded within the GoldenTriangle, Jalan Ampang and Within CityCentre (WCC). For this study, thedefinition by City Hall Kuala Lumpur willbe adopted.The perceived need to influenceoffice location decision is described inthe Malaysian Planning documentations,the following extract being typical of thekinds of generalised policy objectivesincorporated in the Structure Plan suchas: i) to promote Kuala Lumpur as achoice location for internationalorganisations and business entities toestablish their regional offices andheadquarters and ii) to create atechnologically advanced city especiallyin the fields of building technology anddesign as well as information andcommunication technology (Draft KLStructure Plan, 2020). Much of the policymaking and planning initiatives arefocussed on the development companiesand others that supply office premises, inthe expectation and hope that the latterare able to accurately assess therequirements of the occupiers. Analternative to such a supply-orientatedapproach, an examination of theoccupational motives of the occupants ofthe office buildings, is advocated here.While older office buildings locatedin secondary location or on the fringe ofCBD area are said to be more susceptibleto being left vacant due to their unpopularoffice addresses and poor buildingimages, similar buildings located close tothe Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC),an area within the Golden Triangle areagained from the strategic location andcontinued to enjoy sustainable occupancyrates (Rahim & Co, 2006).By the third quarter of 2009, thereare approximately 6.3 million squaremetres (68 million square feet) of officespace in Kuala Lumpur (NAPIC, Q3,2009). Of this amount, 79% is located66