Attractiveness audit of your offices
Technical reading of the building fabric, obsolescence at 3 and 7 years
A poorly positioned commercial asset in the Paris region loses 12 to 18 months of rent during re-letting, equating to 220 to 380 EUR/sqm of evaporated cash flow: well above the cost of a full audit (8 to 15 EUR/sqm). With re-letting timelines lengthening significantly in the Inner Ring and at La Défense compared with central Paris (FloRa data, Q3 2024), correctly repositioned assets re-let significantly faster than the Paris-region market average. The Kytom attractiveness audit quantifies the gap between your building and the expected rental standard, with no findings without budgetary consideration. Three families of criteria: technical compliance (ERP (public-access building), IGH (high-rise), accessibility for people with reduced mobility, smoke extraction), usage performance (net usable area ratios, modularity, secondary works), market positioning (headline rent, comparables signed over 12 months). A grid of 80 indicators (Kytom internal reference framework, 2024 version), weighted by sub-market. Delivery in 4 to 8 weeks, three costed scenarios, regulatory pathway for commercial energy efficiency integrated into the business plan.
The audit captures the actual condition of structural equipment: air handling units, building management systems, lifts, utility networks, roof waterproofing, high- and low-voltage systems. Each work package is projected over two obsolescence horizons, 3 years and 7 years, aligned with common commercial lease terms (3/6/9 years).
The diagnosis cross-references three sources: regulatory inspection reports (Apave, Bureau Veritas, Socotec), a contradictory inspection carried out by an experienced site manager, and the maintenance logs provided by the property manager. The objective fits in one line: cost the capex required to bring the asset back to standard, broken down by work package and by deadline. You obtain a budget that holds up before an investment committee, with a high and low range drawn from our field experience on audits delivered and tested against actual post-works capex.
| Technical package | 3-year horizon | 7-year horizon |
|---|---|---|
| HVAC (AHU, BMS) | Upgrade | Replacement |
| Lifts | Cabin modernisation | Machinery overhaul |
| Roof waterproofing | Spot repairs | Complete renewal |
| Low-voltage systems | Cat. 6A recabling | Full IP migration |
Kytom’s position, against the doctrine of the exhaustive technical diagnosis. The widespread practice among regulatory inspectors is to deliver a vertical report, package by package, with no projection over the lease term. Our reading differs: an HVAC capex of 180 EUR/sqm cannot be defended before an investment committee if it is not tied to a 3/6/9 lease deadline. Across all the leases we analyse, the useful window for bringing the asset back to standard systematically falls between M-18 and M-6 before the three-year break. It is this timing that produces the ROI, not the exhaustiveness of the diagnosis.
The method draws on the applicable DTU standards (notably the DTUs relating to waterproofing) and the site feedback accumulated across all our commercial operations.
When this technical audit is not relevant. Below 1,500 sqm for a single asset with no divestment project within 5 years, the 80-indicator grid exceeds the actual need: a standard regulatory technical diagnosis (4 to 6 weeks, 8 to 12 EUR/sqm) is sufficient. Likewise, for an asset already certified in operation at a very good level less than 24 months old, relaunching a full audit adds no marginal value: a targeted update of rental comparables is more efficient.
Suitability for commercial uses and decree pathway
An 800 sqm floor plate no longer lets the way it did in 2018. Paris-region rental demand has recalibrated around four measurable parameters, which the audit systematically tests:
- Target density between 10 and 12 sqm per workstation, measured in net usable area per effective workstation.
- Collaborative space ratio around 30 to 35% of usable floor area, a threshold now expected by Paris-region commercial users.
- Acoustic performance of booths and phone-boxes according to NF S 31-080:2006 performant level.
- Natural light across 80% of workstation positions, a visual comfort indicator applied to fixed workstations.
The audit assesses the capacity for reconfiguration without intervening on the structural grid. Three standard layout scenarios are tested against current rental demand in the sub-market: flex office, hybrid with dedicated teams, floor partitioned into independent units. Each scenario is assigned a target rent, a time to bring it to standard and a projected rental absorption.
On the energy side, the commercial decree requires a 40% reduction in final energy consumption by 2030, with a reference year after 2010. The audit projects the building over the 2030, 2040 and 2050 milestones and quantifies the green premium accessible through environmental certification in operation, generally observed between 3 and 8% of headline rent depending on the sub-market and the certification level.
For the asset manager: what this grid changes concretely on the business plan. A green premium of this order, capitalised at 6%, represents 50 to 130 EUR/sqm of additional asset value. On a 6,000 sqm net usable area building, this represents 300,000 to 780,000 EUR of value creation, to be compared against the certification capex (180 to 320 EUR/sqm) and the processing time (8 to 14 months). The trade-off is made on this ratio, not on ESG conviction. The density-collaborative-acoustic-light grid directly feeds the DCF assumptions: projected vacancy rate, rent-free periods, tenant retention at the three-year break.
Limits of the usage simulation. The density-collaborative-acoustic-light grid does not apply to single-tenant assets already let to an industrial or administrative occupant on a firm lease longer than 6 years: the issue becomes one of contractual compliance, not rental repositioning. For assets in B2 or C zones with a structural vacancy rate above 18%, the green premium becomes hypothetical: the priority is floor plate flexibility and the headline rent level, not certification.
From diagnosis to action plan, four costed capex scenarios
The final report ranks the value-enhancement levers across four distinct scenarios, each budgeted and scheduled. Each line is assigned a capex budget, a works duration, a projected vacancy and a target rent supported by comparables signed over the last twelve months.
| Scenario | Indicative capex (EUR/sqm) | Works duration | Projected vacancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light refurbishment | 200 to 400 | 8 to 12 weeks | 0 to 3 months |
| Heavy refurbishment | 600 to 1100 | 6 to 9 months | 6 to 12 months |
| Repositioning | 900 to 1500 | 9 to 14 months | 9 to 15 months |
| Partial reversion | 1200 to 2000 | 12 to 18 months | variable |
Capex ranges established on the basis of our operational experience in the Paris region, recalibrated quarterly against the BT01 and TP01 indices (excluding design fees and excluding taxation).
Contrarian: the profitable scenario is not always the most ambitious one. Across the operations analysed, light refurbishment at 200-400 EUR/sqm can produce an IRR higher than a full repositioning, particularly when the asset is located in a tight zone (Paris central business district, La Défense, Boucle Sud) and the principal lease still has more than 4 years to run. The asset management reflex of systematically aiming for repositioning destroys value on core assets already close to standard. The Kytom report ranks scenarios by 7-year IRR, not by architectural ambition.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Kytom attractiveness audit cost and what is its delivery time?
The cost ranges between 8 and 15 EUR/sqm of net usable area depending on the size of the asset and the depth of technical diagnosis required. For a 6,000 sqm building, therefore expect between 48,000 and 90,000 EUR. Delivery time: 4 to 8 weeks after signing, including the contradictory inspection, the cross-referencing of regulatory reports (Apave, Bureau Veritas, Socotec, Qualiconsult), the analysis of rental comparables signed over 12 months and the delivery of the three costed scenarios. For assets under LOI or with a three-year break in less than 6 months, an accelerated version in 3 weeks is possible on the priority components (capex and target rent).
What is the difference from a standard regulatory technical audit?
A regulatory audit (8 to 12 EUR/sqm, 4 to 6 weeks) addresses periodic inspection obligations: ERP, IGH, accessibility for people with reduced mobility, smoke extraction. It is package by package, with no projection over the lease term and no link to the asset management strategy. The Kytom audit incorporates these inspections and adds three layers: capex projection over 3-year and 7-year horizons aligned with 3/6/9 leases, simulation of four costed capex scenarios with target rent and projected vacancy, and a pathway for reducing the commercial stock’s energy consumption through to 2050. The deliverable directly feeds the business plan and the DCF, not just the safety register.
Which Paris-region sub-markets does Kytom operate in?
Paris central business district, Paris outside the central business district, La Défense, Boucle Sud (Issy, Boulogne, Levallois, Neuilly), Boucle Nord, Péri-Défense, the South-East and South-West inner ring, and the commercial hubs of Saint-Denis, Pleyel and Saint-Ouen. For B2 and C zones with structural vacancy above 18%, Kytom steers towards a different approach centred on floor plate flexibility and headline rent, not on environmental certification whose green premium becomes hypothetical.
How does the audit feed the DCF and the investment committee assumptions?
The report delivers four direct inputs to the financial model: capex to bring the asset to standard broken down by work package and by deadline, target rent per scenario supported by comparables signed over 12 months, projected vacancy per scenario, and the valuation of the capitalised green premium. The delivery format (structured Excel and a 12- to 18-page summary note) is designed to be integrated as is into an investment committee note.
