Commercial Investment Real Estate Spring 2022 | Page 28

Previous spread , photos by Yuriz ( skyline ); Ivanastar ( digital overlay ) capacity for tenants ; customizable features such as work areas that can be reserved ; location tracking ; and even parking facilities .
In 2021 , Forrester Consulting surveyed more than 300 facilities and corporate real estate decision-makers and found that they expected employees back in the office by 2022 and were depending on technology to help them achieve their top goal : creating a workplace that was most conducive to productivity . According to a report on the survey , “ close to 80 percent of respondents say their firms have invested or are currently investing in technology to optimize facility management ; the same is true for real estate portfolio and data management technology investments .”
And it ’ s not just concern for current tenants and employees . “ We ’ re seeing in our polling indications that there ’ s good interest [ in proptech ],” says John D ’ Angelo , real estate solutions leader for Deloitte . “ People believe that having a smart building , whatever that means , is going to be really important to tenants when they make choices about where to go . It ’ s along the lines of , ‘ The war for talent is over — talent won .’ If you ’ re an employer of choice , how are you showing that you ’ re enabling a great experience for your people and helping them be productive ?”
He also notes that the increased emphasis on health-related aspects of a building — such as ventilation , air circulation , and natural light — have become more important to tenants . “ Before the pandemic , there was an interest in wellness , but it wasn ’ t very widespread ,” he says . “ Certainly , it ’ s a very different story now .”
Smart building technology has also become a factor in companies ’ ESG goals . As tenants , customers , and investors examine a company ’ s commitment to the environment and sustainability , the ability to measure and conserve energy and water , as well as build environmentally sound buildings , can be implemented with smart technology .
Smart buildings can also automate functions such as room booking , hot desking , employee location , and office mapping , all of which can be personalized to occupants . “[ H ] aving my environment be smart about what I want and anticipate my needs [ is important ],” D ’ Angelo says . “ I can set preferences and go from one location to another , and it will remember my preferences . I think we ’ re going to see more of that .”
The office environment isn ’ t the only place where occupants ’ expectations have been raised . D ’ Angelo sees it in multifamily rental properties as well . Renters are looking at a building ’ s environmental impact and energy use , as well as app-controlled smart home technology in the building and individual units . “ We ’ re hearing that from multifamily rental owner / operators . At one point , these were considered amenities , and I think
PROPTECH ’ S GOLDEN AGE
that ’ s moving more toward being essentials . We ’ ll continue to see pressure to have the digital experiences of residents match the digital experiences of other parts of their life , like their financial life . Real estate just can ’ t be a completely different paradigm than the rest of their world .”
BEYOND THE SMART BUILDING But real estate companies need to look past the bells and whistles of smart technology to use proptech as a complete package . Deloitte ’ s “ 2022 Commercial Real Estate Outlook ” recommends “ a shift in mindset in how
Improving the Tenant Experience
Importance of Each Aspect , Ranked
Enhancements
Sustainable / Energy-Efficient Properties
Dynamic Building Designs , Such As Reconfigurable Spaces
Flexible Leasing Models ( i . e ., Revenue Sharing , Management Contracts )
Additional Amenities
Interactive Mobile Apps for Communication and Updates
Overall
Most Important
Office
Source : The Deloitte Center for Financial Services Global Outlook Survey 2021
firms engage with tenants , end users , investors , and developers . Leaders should adopt a Real-Estate-as-a-Service ( REaaS ) approach , which combines strategy , technology , and data to deliver digital and physical services — not just space — to tenants and users .”
“ The most proactive companies ,” says the ULI report , “ are pursuing multiple business strategies to stay ahead of change and innovation made possible by technology , and to identify and access optimal technological solutions as they become available .”
Companies using project management technology , for example , can connect all participants in a development project — from investors through the contractors — to enable a more efficient building process . Construction technologies focus on construction and space and use design . This can include everything from drone technology during construction , building information modeling , and visualization tools . On the financial end , technology use has increased for forecasting , tenant management , portfolio and transaction management , and raising capital .
One bedrock of proptech is data analysis , which is an area where companies are not yet where they should be . Forrester Consulting ’ s study showed that many firms were confident in their ability to analyze data , but 62 percent of respondents said their firms lacked the technology to do so , and 65 percent
1 2 3 4 5 Industry Subsector
Retail
Industrial
Least Important
Residential
Specialty
Residential
1 2 2 3 1 1 4
2 3 1 2 3 3 2
3 1 5 1 2 4 3
4 4 2 5 5 5 5
5 5 4 4 4 2 1
Hospitality said that collecting real-time data was challenging . That could change — ULI noted that only 46 percent of survey respondents said that they had adopted data analytics over the last three years , but 77 percent said that they have included it in their technology plans for the next three years .
“ The pandemic exposed that many commercial real estate organizations lack resiliency , primarily a symptom of disconnected processes and data , which makes it extremely challenging to respond to a dynamic , rapidly
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