International law firm CMS has examined the anticipated future of the world’s towns and cities, from both the perspective of those responsible for creating new urban communities, and the consumers expected to live and work in, and visit them.

The research also examines the reaction of the industry to the Government’s Levelling up agenda, with over three quarters of respondents feeling positive about the White Paper.

Repurposing Real Estate: The future of the world’s towns and cities is the tenth year CMS has produced its annual real estate report. In addition to gauging the latest perspective on the outlook for the real estate market from over 300 real estate industry professionals, this year’s report focuses on how the world’s towns and cities are set to evolve in the post pandemic era.

The quantitative survey, which took place in March-April 2022 and was conducted by FTI Consulting on behalf of CMS, gathering the opinions of 317 real estate industry professionals and almost 15,000 consumers from the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain and the UAE.

The report found that property owners and investors are acting quickly with 28.6% of real estate assets currently being repurposed, with 31.7% of properties set to be repurposed in the next five years.

The most popular change of use planned is to create more residential properties, with 32% of industry respondents saying they are repurposing or plan to repurpose retail to housing, while 24% are focused on converting offices to housing.