Property Council's Leonie Freeman interviews Scott Pritchard

Yesterday, Scott Pritchard sat down with Property Council’s Chief Executive, Leonie Freeman, to discuss this year’s priorities.

Ironically, it was only last week Precinct reported office occupancy across its portfolio was around 90% but yesterday’s interview was conducted remotely due to a change in Alert Levels at the weekend.

The top three things they discussed were people working from work, Scott’s recent appointment as Chair of the PCNZ and the importance of diversity in the workforce.

High office occupancy was a strong indicator that consumer confidence was up. Levels of unemployment are relatively low, businesses are hiring and New Zealand's economy was in a good position.

“Many of the businesses in Precinct’s portfolio are client or customer-centric, service-based businesses, the likes of law firms, accounting, technology and financial services. These businesses thrive in collaborative environments, many have new cohorts of graduates joining at this time of the year and you cannot replicate a learning and development environment working from home”.

In particular, Commercial Bay has seen high levels of foot traffic for the last few weeks as businesses in the city centre have returned for the new year.

This latest Auckland lockdown aside, we have been pleased with the number of people returning to our buildings and we have experienced really positive engagement with activities Precinct offer its clients through the Commercial Bay Club and activation in our lobbies for Auckland’s Pride Month.

Looking forward to the rest of the year, Leonie brought up Scott’s recent appointment as Chair of the New Zealand Property Council and his aspiration for the industry body.

“I want the Property Council to be an organisation that people in the industry strive to be involved with...Property is a fundamental component that contributes to and stimulates the economy and often it gets overlooked or taken for granted. It is responsible for creating jobs, bringing people and businesses together and changing the look and feel of cities. I’d like that to become more obvious to New Zealanders”.

Last but not least, diversity and inclusion remains a top priority. As we approach International Women’s Day on 8 March the presence of females in the workforce is particularly relevant. Precinct's business is 52% female, a significant increase on where we, and the property industry 10 or even five years ago was at.

The value we get from diversity of ideas and our thinking is something we are continually looking to expand on, and absolutely improves the way we run our business.

“It’s important to surround yourself with people who will challenge what you are trying to achieve”.