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The proptech data utopia – data-led decision making

Mark Devereux, Chief Technology, Kinexio

04 October,2024

1 min read

The commercial property industry, like many sectors, today generates more data than ever. But proptech data alone is not enough. As Ross Hodges, Global Emerging Technologies Lead at Cushman & Wakefield says;

“If you don’t have the data or if there are problems with the data, there will be bad outcomes no matter how good the AI is.”

Shopping centres, for instance, utilise data from customer feedback and social media interactions to enhance the shopping experience and tailor marketing efforts.

When 56% of CRE executives believe that data analytics significantly enhances decision-making processes, it’s important to know your tech stack is up to scratch to help inform business decisions, increase NOI, and drive cost and resource efficiencies.

You’ll likely have the data you need within your business somewhere. But knowing where it is and how to access it is another story. Add in multiple data sources and it becomes even more complicated to connect those data points without the right systems in place.

What property companies’ architecture and tech stack currently look like

This lack of best-of-breed systems is the biggest challenge to improved data management. The inherent architecture and tech stacks that property companies have built are often chaotic and disconnected. With a traditional focus on siloed points solutions the data generated can also remain siloed.

Such silos lead to data duplication that, as well as being inefficient, raises the risk of data inaccuracy, distracting from the single source of truth that business decisions should be based on.

The complexities data overload

The data overload problem is evident even with something as simple as tenant sales. For example, within just one shopping centre you will have the sales data of multiple tenants. Multiply that across your portfolio and you have the potential for a rich pool of sales data and performance that can provide evidence for many different scenarios. It can also be used for benchmarking, which is important for data-driven leasing decisions.

Add in correlations between associated data, such as footfall and marketing campaign results, and the analytics opportunities become even more powerful.

However, these multiple sources are complex to manage. Data maturity levels can vary wildly across your portfolio, even in the basics of data collection. That makes it harder to find, connect and aggregate disparate data sources to enable more strategic thinking.

The utopia for commercial property companies

When you think about your ideal scenario for data, it starts with the ability to quickly and easily access it, not just to view it, but to turn the data into insights. Once this is possible, you’re able to look ahead and make future-proofing decisions that positively affect your building.

Aggregating data from a range of sources across your portfolio helps everyone – from investors, owners, operators and managers. As well as boosting NOI, more intelligent use of data also helps to improve tenant experience, which more than half (54%) of real estate professionals plan to prioritise when enhancing their tech stack.

The path to utopia? Data management…

The first step towards this utopia of data management has to start with an audit of the basics. Identifying where your data is held and avoiding duplication will mean a clean and compliant environment on which to build your strategy.

This review can also help identify weaknesses in data collection across portfolios. If you’ve acquired additional centres over the years there may be disparities between the type of data you collect and how collection is conducted. This directly filters into wider decision-making… Standardising data collection and maturity across your portfolio is essential.

The next step is aggregating your data. Incorporating other sources might feel like you’re bringing in more chaos. But it’s important to take advantage of all elements in your data set to provide a clear picture of potential investment and risk management opportunities.

System and Operations Management integration is key

In every commercial space, you’ll be dealing with multiple operations and management software systems ranging from leasing systems to sales capture, tenant engagement and communication to facilities and property maintenance software.

On top of that, you might have other industry-relevant data sources, such as security CCTV data or footfall counters. The challenge is tying this library of tools together within a clear ecosystem capable of easy interrogation.

With the right system at the heart of your business, you can connect those disparate data sources and create the type of ecosystem built to benefit from the additional capability that this enables.

See also:

Commercial real estate AI – How it’s revolutionising the property sector

The intelligent use of data to drive actionable insights is key to reducing risk, improving tenant engagement and retention while supporting revenue growth. Improving your portfolio reporting through a more sophisticated approach to data will allow a higher, more strategic level insight into the business that can drive further advances in these important KPIs. That’s the true value of data in your business.