The effect of firm characteristics on the prime office accommodation decision

ABSTRACT This paper examines whether firm characteristics are significant determinants in leasing decisions of Australian corporate occupiers. A logistic regression is used to examine the significance of industry, company size and geographic reach of 127 ASX300 corporate occupiers on the prime or non-prime corporate office accommodation decision in Melbourne, Australia. Findings indicate that certain industry and company size characteristics are significant determinants of the prime/non-prime decision. However, the amount of influence of these characterisitics varied from a previous study. This supports claims about the geographic heterogeneity of markets suggested in earlier studies but does suggest that additional research is required to establish how general is the phenomenon. This work also demonstrates further research is needed into the influence of both objective and subjective firm characteristics on accommodation decisions.