Covid-19 has Accelerated Real Estate Firms’ Use of Data and Technology

Commercial real estate data is poised to become even more relevant in a post-pandemic world.

“It is said that data is the new oil,” noted Anita Lyse, Global Head of Real Estate and Group Head of Segments as she spoke with Institutional Real Estate Americas. “That may be true, but the real value is of course in how to use the data. Meaningful data analytics can only be achieved if the foundations are solid and consistent, so the big challenge is how to define, normalize and standardize data so that you are able to make sense of it and use it for management purposes.”

According to Lyse, a lot of progress has been made already in the area of the financial data, although it can be extremely complex, particularly, for those operating across multiple asset classes and geographies. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made a large impact on the commercial real estate industry.

“In addition to the hospitality sector, major asset classes like retail and office, traditionally the two largest asset classes, have been badly hit by COVID,” noted Lyse. “While class A properties in prime locations are on the rebound, it remains a tough environment for investors. Instead, we see investors finding opportunities in asset classes that have traditionally been considered alternatives, such as logistics, life science, self-storage and data centers, which are now being considered more mainstream.” She added that opportunistic investors are looking to pick up distressed assets or nonperforming loans at a sizable discount.

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