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The Knight Frank geospatial team play a critical role in delivering data-driven analysis for commercial, residential, and rural property projects.
For the team to deliver the best insight for their clients, it is essential that they can carry out accurate location analysis, using real-world travel time data rather than simple distance measures.
Why Knight Frank Chose TravelTime
To enhance location-based decision-making, Knight Frank turned to TravelTime—a powerful location API designed to analyse locations based on travel time data.“Property is famously all about location, and accessibility defines the relationships that make a location."
At the time of TravelTime’s adoption, Cameron McDonald, Knight Frank’s Head of Geospatial in Research and Analytics noted: "The thing that originally led us to TravelTime is the richness of features around public transport, particularly isochrone creation.”
He explained that "property is famously all about location, and accessibility defines the relationships that make a location. We have historically used the network analysis tools in Esri's ArcGIS Online which has a great toolset, but it lacks the underlying public transport data which is critical for us to provide meaningful advice across the board."
Watch the full customer testimonial featuring Cameron McDonald, Head of Geospatial in Research and Analytics now.
Why TravelTime Matters in Commercial Real Estate
Accurate, scalable, and cost-effective location intelligence is critical to Knight Frank.
Before TravelTime, Knight Frank faced limitations in property analysis, relying on tools that didn’t integrate journey time data, and the lack of public transport insights caused significant problems.
With TravelTime, it’s now possible for Knight Frank to analyse location data based on public transport times, as well as all other standard modes like driving, cycling, walking or even combining modes together such as driving and train.
Cameron McDonald, Head of Geospatial, Knight Frank says: “The vast majority of our customers now want to define their area of interest using travel times—whether that be a 5-minute walk around an office building in central London or a 30-minute drive around a vineyard in Kent.”
Knight Frank needed a partner to:
- Provide real-world travel insights for geospatial analysis
- Offer commute-based analysis for commercial clients
- Scale efficiently for large-scale geospatial projects without slowing down or skyrocketing costs
TravelTime and the plugin for ArcGIS support these demands seamlessly.
Get started with TravelTime and ArcGIS here.TravelTime Isochrone Mapping and Search Filtering
By integrating TravelTime’s API, Knight Frank performs geospatial analysis using time data rather than just distance data.
This helps clients understand and filter locations more effectively, to make better location-based decisions. For example, a commercial real estate client can analyse different spaces for a new development based on accessibility to different amenities.
Cameron McDonald, Head of Geospatial explains: “Being able to map travel time as opposed to straight-line distances really offers a real-world angle to our outputs.”
TravelTime and Knight Frank Use Cases
Knight Frank applies TravelTime across multiple real estate and geospatial use cases, allowing both Knight Frank and their clients to make smarter and more data-driven decisions.
Whether it is office relocation analysis, residential property scoring, or large-scale spatial analytics, TravelTime has become an indispensable tool in their consultancy services.
Office Relocation Analysis
“We map out employee home postcodes and then look at commute options within London. This helps identify potential office relocation opportunities—whether it’s in Paddington, Victoria, or London Bridge.” - Cameron McDonald, Head of Geospatial, Knight Frank
When businesses look to move office locations, one of the key considerations is employee commute times. With TravelTime, Knight Frank can model various relocation scenarios to ensure that companies choose locations that are optimally accessible for their workforce.
Residential Property Scoring
“We assess amenity provision by looking at travel-time-based walkability to key services, then scoring properties based on their accessibility.” - Cameron McDonald, Head of Geospatial, Knight Frank
In the residential sector, proximity to amenities such as schools, hospitals, shops, and transport links is crucial. The accessibility to amenities and points of interest are the factors that determine how ‘good’ a location really is.
TravelTime enables Knight Frank to provide detailed accessibility scoring, helping clients better understand property value and suitability.
Large-Scale Spatial Analysis
“The ability to generate tens of thousands of isochrones in a short period of time really makes our life easier.” - Cameron McDonald, Head of Geospatial, Knight Frank
For investment and urban planning projects, high-volume spatial analysis is required. TravelTime’s ability to rapidly process large datasets allows Knight Frank to perform detailed accessibility assessments at scale.
Technical Implementation of TravelTime API
One of the key benefits of TravelTime is its integration with ArcGIS Pro, allowing Knight Frank’s geospatial team to run sophisticated analyses without the need for extensive coding expertise.
With our easy-to-use plugin, Knight Frank can do this directly in the ArcGIS Pro desktop application without the need to write any code. They just pick a tool, enter some parameters, and the plugin will run the analysis. It's that simple.
Knight Frank initially considered building their own routing models, but maintaining an in-house solution proved to be too resource intensive.
Knight Frank Head of Geospatial says: “Like many organisations with a mature geospatial capability, we have the tools to create our own routing models, but we quickly realised that maintaining any meaningful in-house capability required far too much effort to be viable in our small team. TravelTime has solved this problem.”
Furthermore, TravelTime’s official integrations with their preferred analytical tools removed technical barriers to adoption, ensuring that Knight Frank could leverage new features without disruption.
“Access to official integrations with our favourite analytical tools eliminates any technical obstacles to adopting new features. From a purely business perspective, the transparent and flexible licensing model gives us the freedom to experiment and share access to TravelTime capabilities across the organisation.”
Results and Impact
Since integrating TravelTime, Knight Frank’s geospatial team has gained faster, more accurate insights into location suitability.
The API has become indispensable for their research and analysis, and most Knight Frank clients now want to use TravelTime as an integral part of their project.
“We’ve worked with TravelTime for more than five years, and it’s become invaluable in the work that the Research & Analysis Department does."
Knight Frank has benefited from:
- Faster analysis and decision-making
- More relevant results for clients
- Better alignment with the real-world
- Seamless integration into ArcGIS Pro for GIS teams
Future of Location Intelligence and Geospatial Analysis
Knight Frank’s success story exemplifies how shifting from distance-based to travel-time-based analysis drives tangible value for real estate professionals.
By integrating TravelTime, their geospatial team has streamlined large-scale property analysis, enhanced location intelligence, and delivered data-driven insights that resonate with clients’ real-world needs.
As the demand for precise and scalable location analytics continues to grow, travel time data will play an increasingly pivotal role in shaping the future of real estate consultancy.
Ready to Transform Your Location Analytics?
Chat with our team to see how TravelTime can elevate your geospatial organisation. Or sign up for our API to start integrating time-based location intelligence today.
Let’s redefine what’s possible in location analytics.