Technology and creativity are combining to transform the real estate world, and anyone who does not keep up with change will be left behind, delegates heard at the PropertyEU Proptech Data & Innovation Briefing, which was held in Luxembourg last week.
‘So far we have been focused on evolution, enabling processes to be done more cheaply and efficiently, but now we are standing at the threshold of a revolution,’ said Jan Willem Jeucken, regional solutions manager at Yardi Systems.
‘Technology plays a small part and creativity a big part, because you have to know how to use the technology in a useful and innovative way.’
Technology will be a big driver of real estate because it finds solutions for the sector’s many challenges. ‘Property management needs a rethink: it is already possible to do things faster, cheaper and better by using platforms to connect owners and users,’ said Menno Lammers, initiator and chief Proptech office, Proptech NL.
Technology also allows solutions tailored to the individual clients. The parameters are changing and it is no longer about traditional long leases, said Jeucken: ‘People will not ask for a five-year lease but five weeks, maybe five hours a day. Everything is becoming more flexible.’
Property management is changing every day as more requests are being made and dealt with by mobile and online. The change is driven by millennials who, said Jeucken, ‘ask tech-savvy questions and see things differently. They expect to do everything online and they want to have in their workplace the same level of technology that they use in their private life.’
Younger generations have a natural advantage and are pushing for innovation, said Lammers: ‘They already have the building blocks to develop and use new solutions.’
Technology is also changing property management, speeding up traditional tasks and allowing more focus on providing services, which is what consumers want. ‘The building’s bricks are the only thing that will stay still,’ said Lammers. ‘The interiors will change and adapt as managers use data to provide services guests need, on energy, mobility, fitness and so on.’
In the near future, buildings will be so smart that they will use sensors to detect inviduals’ usage of facilities, detect inefficiencies and suggest changes. It could tell a tenant when his car needs a service, will tell the manager that the conference room could be smaller because it is not being used enough, will point out that the gym should be bigger, that new air filters are needed and so on.
‘Smarter buildings will have sensor and will adapt to tenants’ needs and behaviour,’ said Jeucken. ‘If you stand still, you lose. Property managers who do not embrace the new phase of providing services will become redundant. ’
Consumers will be the winners, as their needs will be met in record time. Already the terminology is changing, borrowing terms from the hospitality industry to reflect that shift in attitude.
Tenants are increasingly being referred to as guests.
‘We already call ourselves a real estate hospitality group,’ said Kai Braun, partner, alternatives advisory leader, EY Luxembourg. ‘Services are becoming more important, and there will be a lot more done in the next few years to make buildings greener, smarter and more efficient. These are unstoppable trends enabled by technology and the smart use of data.’
