She said that during the pandemic and in the very tough Melbourne market, Charter Hall listened to what tenants needed in this new environment and in doing so was able to secure online shopping giant Amazon as the anchor tenant at 555 Collins Street.

“We’re spending a lot of time with our customers, workshopping and listening to what they want to do with existing space and what does the new space they want look like,” she said.

“But it’s not an easy market by any stretch of the imagination, and people are rethinking the way they want to offer space and the type of services. So there’s a lot of extra work going on behind then scenes on behind, more than ever before, to make sure we get the delivery right on things and the way we’re talking to our customers and listening to them.”

Investa’s group executive Michael Cook, who has delivered 60 Martin Place during the pandemic, said a landlord’s most important asset was not their shiny new building, it was their tenant.

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“Yet too many of us in the landlord space have failed to respond quickly enough to help our tenants get back to work,” Mr Cook said.

“When this lockdown ends, how are we going to help our tenants combat employee hesitancy? Over the last 12 months, landlords and their development and technology teams have poured over the literature, proto-typed various technologies and installed all manner of equipment to allay the fears of our office worker clients.”

He said some tenants in 60 Martin Place have already gone “contact-less”, electing to use smartphones as proximity readers to access all points of their tenancy.

“Air-conditioning systems are the next frontier, with UV filtration, ionic purification and single pass systems all under review, despite the fact that evidence suggests that existing system neither contribute or detract from the fight against COVID-19.”