Office OSCAR 2007: Not the be all and end all

22.07.08

Jones Lang LaSalle released the 2007 Office OSCAR report in early June 2008 and like the 2006 edition, it has some significant flaws.

Jones Lang LaSalle released the 2007 Office OSCAR report in early June 2008. The database is significantly smaller than 2006, down 23% to 21.4m sq ft (from 28.1m sq ft in 2006) – representing just 3% of UK multi-let offices.

In this year’s report, OSCAR continues to exhibit the same problems outlined in the comparison analysis of OSCAR 2006 with the Loughborough study.

1. Continued high churn - 46% (58% in 2006)
2. Cost exclusions continued. (OSCAR still excludes exceptional costs, insurance, interest credits and VAT.) There is a promise to include exceptional costs and interest credits in 2008 but the same promise was made last year.
3. Analysis basis – OSCAR continues to use mean and standard deviation which Loughborough believes is statistically inappropriate for the size and variability of the sample.
4. OSCAR is neither large enough nor statistically significant enough to be used for benchmarking purposes. As an example: If you were trying to benchmark costs in non a/c offices in Greater London and South East using charts 27 & 28 (page 26) you might believe that security costs in London should be double those in the South East. At no point would you question OSCAR's benchmark which, in both charts, is based on just four buildings!
5. Jones Lang LaSalle have not measured the compliance of the buildings in their database against the RICS Code of Practice which came into force in April 2007.