The coming years will see tenants in residential, office and other properties judge their buildings online, in much the same way hotels are reviewed today, delegates at the PropertyEU's latest Asset Management briefing have heard.

The coming years will see tenants in residential, office and other properties judge their buildings online, in much the same way hotels are reviewed today, delegates at the PropertyEU's latest Asset Management briefing have heard.

'In the US, a lot of residential complexes have a centre manager, and their new tenants are millennials who are renting their first apartment,' explained Richard Gerritsen, a European director for Yardi Systems.

'These are kids who grew up in the internet age, and they are used to rating their trip or restaurant and will also be rating their apartment. With our US colleagues, we’re talking about reputation management, with a complex that has its own Facebook page. These are concepts that might look futile now, but this is coming to Europe.'

Etienne Dupuy, a senior director with Invesco, predicted that the trend would spread to other sectors, too. ´Think of hotels: we always think about what makes a building attractive. People want the experience of the end client to be satisfying. One day, we will have, not Trip Advisor but “office advisor”, where tenants will be able to rate buildings directly and then have a more transparent market,’ he said

‘Today we get soft signals to interpret, like if we see a new trendy retailer, maybe that’s a sign that that is the next retail spot and then the next residential spot and then office. Real estate is not a science, but we definitely lack data. The more we have, the more professional we will be and more the liquid the market.’

The Asset Management briefing was held during Expo Real. Click here to watch highlights from the briefing.