Factors Influencing Office Building Occupation Decision by Tenants ...

Factors Influencing Office Building Occupation Decision by Tenants in Kuala Lumpur city centre – a Delphi Studyoccupation in Kuala Lumpur. Key factorsidentified were location, building design,building services, rental rates andbuilding image. The study also revealedthat a majority of the buildings aremanaged in-house. It was also generallyobserved that the tenants in the GoldenTriangle Area were more maintenanceconscious than their counterparts in theCBD area, possibly due to their derivedexpectation of the better quality servicesto correspond with the comparativelyhigher service charge levied on them. Thestudy however did not specifically rankthe importance of the facilitiesaccordingly or gauge the level of tenantsatisfaction in terms of expectation andperformance towards the factorsidentified. It is interesting to note thatvarious factors have been identified tosolicit tenants’ requirements fromprevious studies and it would useful tofind out whether these factors are stillrelevant in the current market office andbusiness scenario in Kuala Lumpur.There are numerous factors invarying degrees that may influence tenantoffice occupation decision. It can beobserved that there are four main areaswhich can be said to encompass the“product offering” to the tenant as aconsumer. Monetary factors have beenone of the considerations and so are theother factors such as location, leasefeatures and building or physicalcharacteristics of the space. A summaryof the comprehensive set of factors andsub factors that are potentially relevantto office occupation decisions ashighlighted in the literature is illustratedin Table 1.While it would be interesting to notethe factors highlighted in previousstudies, it would be useful to determinethe factors considered relevant by tenantsin the office buildings in Malaysia bysoliciting the views of the propertyconsultants/leasing experts in KualaLumpur. The initial part of the studyinvolves the derivation of importantfactors that are relevant in the KualaLumpur office market by seeking theviews of the property experts. They arechosen among senior managers ofproperty consultancy firms and property/building managers that have dealt withthe tenants in top grade office buildingsat Kuala Lumpur city centre.The Delphi ApproachIn seeking the views of the experts andidentifying the factors that are importantto tenants in office occupation decisionin Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a Delphiapproach was adopted. This approachwas chosen as it is an iterative approachused to collect and distill the judgmentsof experts using a series of questionnairesinterspersed with feedback. It is oftenused as a qualitative forecastingtechnique but is also used to investigateand understand the factors that mayinfluence decision making on a specificissue, topic or a problem area. The Delphimethod has its origins in the Americanbusiness community and has since beenwidely accepted throughout the world inmany industry sectors including healthcare, defence, business, education,information technology, transportationand engineering. Delphi has found its wayinto industry, government, and finally,academia. It has simultaneouslyexpanded beyond technological71