Bharat SainiLast Updated on January 7, 2017 by Bharat Saini
Commercial properties; the industrial term as widely used has witnessed tremendous change over the last 30 years. No longer it’s the usual “mom-and-pop” but today showcase institutional asset class allowing owners to manage global and complex portfolios. Investors once were rarely interested in commercial real estate but the introduction of new financial structures and global market pertinent to the industry; more or less 25 per cent investment portfolios represent commercial properties.
Although we’ve the best tech tools at our end such as cloud, big data, mobile and many others, CRE or commercial real estate is still managed through the typical spread-sheets by most. The good news, even this is changing as a new wave of CRE tech companies harness innovative tools driving the industry to the verge of triumph.
From an agent’s perspective, here’re a few major changes reshaping the CRE niche;
1. Competition on all fronts & rising gradually
In an active real estate market, commercial industry is facing a much higher degree of competition, changing the very way we recruit, invest and launch fundraising campaigns. Huge capital inflow sustained lower interest rates and impulsiveness in equity markets that further resulted in increased demand for such properties unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
This optimistic competition also took fundraising to a new level as investors only prefer firms promising the best absolute yields. Limited number of partners are eyeing greatly on advance tools for better visibility of real estate market whereas talent hunt for the best suitable candidate or investor is also there.
With CRE asset class expands and become more complex, the next industrial leaders requires a different skill set having strong grasp over latest trends and familiarity with modern work environment.
2. The rising demand for real-time data access
We also observe a notable shift around data and analytics expectations. Indeed, CRE has always been data driven, completely aggregating and analysing the stream of data from ERP systems and spread sheets has nearly been impossible. The result is extracting portfolio-wide details that require an expert team of analysts and hours of manual accretion.
Owners and brokerage firms of commercial properties need harnessing actual market data and portfolio for success. It comes in handy to gain an edge over taking better and informed decisions, reduce portfolio risk and operate more efficiently. Still, there’s a growing need to tap the data much deeper to keep the element of competitive advantage in their grasp.
3. Amplified mobility
CRE is also an expanding mobile industry with lease agents and customers spending more working hours using mobile data and internet on-the-go. The boom of smartphones and applications also touched the CRE and today we’ve many different apps; both free and subscription based to manage the industry in best possible ways. These mobile tools are for brokers, owners, buyers and even typical users holding special interest in real estate industry.
4. Technology consumerisation
As technology pervaded our lives, we owe much to the developers of smart apps and here, real estate applications that have simplified the entire process from search to buy, rent and all. A sensible software from the simplest to most complex process is becoming must rule instead of an option.
Core CRE software platforms evolved years ago and renovations to them bridged the gap between the tools and problems. The many new CRE companies today harness ultramodern software, the perfect skillset to manage it entirely as well as deep domain expertise, ruling the real estate industry by storm. A proof of this trend is visible with VC investments in the real estate companies driven by technology.
Conclusion
I’d like to mention a name of one dubai based commercial properties management firm for wonderful facts and information it shared during the article write up. No doubt, spread sheets and phone calls remains the primary tool for CRE owners and brokers, the newer and smarter tools are here to rule and change the face of commercial properties as we speak.
