PODCAST: Why companies are too late to start their office moves

Melbourne’s 20% office vacancy signals abundant choice and no urgency. But for business leaders planning their next workplace move, that's a misleading narrative.

"Get past the headline vacancy numbers," warns Mark Rose, national corporate leasing and strategy manager for Westpac. "Finding a 5,000 square metre contiguous chunk with specific requirements is different from what an MD reads in the paper."

The reality is that 68% of Melbourne's vacancy sits in just 10% of assets, creating a structural challenge that catches unprepared tenants off guard. Premium grade space with modern amenities, strong ESG credentials and desirable locations remains highly competitive despite the broader market softness.

For Westpac's recent office strategy covering 48,000 sqm, Rose's team needed the full three-year runway from market engagement to occupancy. "There's no point running a market process if you don't have enough time to actually make the move, do a fit-out, and get out of your existing premises by lease expiry," he explains.

That timeline is about logistics, but also about giving landlords the opportunity to invest in assets, negotiate meaningfully, and explore creative solutions that emerge from genuine partnership rather than rushed transactions.

Andria Carniato, regional portfolio manager for Charter Hall reinforces this from the landlord perspective. "We're probably already thinking about it in that planning phase three years out. The earlier that we can open the dialogue and have those types of conversations, the easier it becomes for everybody, and the better outcome everybody gets."

Today's office decisions carry a new dimension of embodied carbon. When Westpac evaluated staying versus moving, the environmental calculus became central to its strategy. "We kept the bones of our existing fit-out, completely changed the look, repurposed and reused where we could," Rose says. "It hasn't necessarily been much cheaper, but we were very deliberate about avoiding ripping out the fit-out to build new because of the embodied carbon story."

Charter Hall turned this thinking into competitive advantage. The landlord facilitated the reuse of workstations from an outgoing tenant in one of its buildings for a tenant in another. "It cost about $100,000 between the three of us to pack down, store, and reassemble them, but it was the right thing to do," Carniato notes.

Connor McCauley, head of Sustainability, Australia and NZ, JLL from JLL points to the broader shift happening across the market. "Furniture makes up about 20% of a fit-out's embodied carbon, but 35% is in partitions, ceiling tiles, and floor tiles, which can be recycled and reused."

The takeaway for business leaders is that early engagement unlocks better economics, stronger sustainability outcomes and genuine partnership with landlords who can invest confidently in their success. 

Listen to the full conversation from JLL's Future Forward Melbourne event on the Perspectives podcast here.