Real Estate in 2019: Roles, Performance and Technology

As a virtual data room provider, we work regularly within the Real Estate market, helping Advisors, businesses and Asset Managers conduct many transactions every year. 

This combined exposure to Real Estate professionals and the transactions conducted using our platform offers us insight into the market’s activity. 

Whilst at EXPO REAL this year, we had the opportunity to share our insight with fellow Real Estate professionals and learn a little bit more about the market. 

Here’s what we’ve experienced in Real Estate in 2019, with comments from our Regional Sales Directors across Europe. 

FYI – This is a broad piece that looks just as much at the role of an Asset Manager as well as market performance. 

Agility is Key 

“There’s more focus than ever, on the speed at which an investor is able to act on an opportunity”, Stefan Beishuizen, Benelux Sales Director. 

Conversations at EXPO showed us how important it is for those in Real Estate to be able to react to opportunities quickly. Storing data on your assets and portfolio in a way that makes it readily accessible and easy to manage is now a table stake in realising this agility. We’ve had numerous discussions this year with Real Estate clients, with a view to helping them do exactly this. Following these basic data requirements being met (storage and management) some conversations have become advanced discussions around how we can help our clients extract valuable information from their data set, so they can create their own insight. This empowers the more advanced Real Estate professional to make data-driven decisions based on their own insight, in other words, we’ve been helping our clients carve a competitive advantage. 

It’s these types of conversations with the market that have led to Imprima releasing new software this year that helps manage asset and portfolio data effectively alongside AI fuelled software that helps clients extract information more quickly and accurately than ever before. 

Tough Conditions equals ‘Different’ Opportunities, not ‘Less’ 

“Alternative cities are emerging as more popular than before due to inflated prices in the primary markets and sometimes a lack of product. Alternative segments are increasing in popularity too – we’re seeing this happen in Hotels and Senior Living”, Justin Tinker, UK & Nordics Sales Director. 

We’re seeing a shift in industry sentiment; anecdotally, we’re told there’s growing interest in ‘alternatives’ and our data shows there’s been a rise in 2019 of our virtual data room software being used to conduct more real estate transactions in the ‘alternatives’ space. Hotels, student housing, flexi office space and assisted living facilities are grabbing the most interest from what we’ve experienced. Time will tell whether we see a tangible rise in transactions from these niche sectors within our platform over the coming months. 

Opportunities are out there, but people are having to think differently about where they invest and why. This has led to us working with real estate clients to help them assess potential opportunities of an alternative asset; our AI fuelled due diligence software mentioned above, empowers asset managers to discover traditionally difficult-to-spot details of an asset that could dramatically affect their potential value.  

Strong Partnerships are Still Essential 

“Many in the industry still spend too much time preparing and structuring data for potential investors. If you have the right partners in place, the time it takes to do this can be dramatically reduced. You then have more time to spend on building relationships and market approach”, Ben Anderton, DACH & CEE Sales Director. 

As a SaaS provider to the Real Estate market, we have good insight into the roles of those working in the industry. One ever-present concern of those in the industry relates to the time it takes to conduct the ‘admin’ associated with taking assets to market, especially when agility is key (see above). We’ve not only addressed that concern from a technology perspective, releasing new software to help companies store, manage and comprehend asset data, we’ve also ensured our project managers understand the market, its terminology, and how transactions play out. 

It was apparent from those we spoke to at EXPO that this goes a long way in helping Asset Managers do their job effectively. We’re always striving to improve both the technology and people aspect of our offerings at Imprima and it’s felt throughout the industry that a solid combination of both these from a trusted service provider is invaluable. 

Agility, Awareness and Collaboration: Key Ingredients for Real Estate Success 

Our learnings, experience, and industry feedback have led us to believe that success in the 2020 Real Estate market will come from a combination of things. Having the ability to move quickly will be key – this is as much cultural as it is technology-driven – so that when new opportunities arise, you’re able to act accordingly. Secondly, being open to alternative ways of thinking is important; the value will be harder to come by if alternative investments aren’t considered. Finally, identifying and working with partners who take the time to understand your strategy and support it will be a huge boost to your efforts; they can help you think ahead of what’s immediately in front of you, ask challenging questions and propose alternative ideas. 

We had a great time at EXPO REAL catching up with clients and meeting new people and we’re already looking forward to next year! By then we’ll have helped even more of the industry conduct transactions efficiently and manage portfolios in a smarter way. 

Do you have a Real Estate transaction to conduct? Or a portfolio to manage? 

You can contact the team here: https://www.imprima.com/contact/sales

We’ll put you in touch with an industry expert who can explore how we’re able to help you.