The Opportunity of the century.
The built world is seeing unprecedented change processes caused by external factors, which creates a ‘perfect storm’ that will separate transformation winners from transformation losers.
Massive Transformation of the Built World
Future-ready green transformation
We are facing a historic and long-term transformation due to the climate crisis, which will further increase ESG pressure from customers, capital markets and regulators. Binding commitments from the Paris Agreement taxonomy requirements and increased green building regulations are forcing the property industry to transition within a short and limited time. Decarbonisation, scalable insulation, generation & distribution of clean energy is creating new real estate opportunities especially in order to retrofit existing assets.
Macroeconomic environment
Rising inflation and interest rates lead to macroeconomic turbulences and consequently increases the need for efficiency in the real estate industry. Moreover, construction costs are rising, creating a greater solvency risk for poorly managed real estate portfolios and development projects. Real estate companies need to be more agile and efficient to successfully seize the market opportunities created by turmoil, instead of relying on the “business as usual” mindset of old days.
Labour shortage
Labour shortage is having a significant impact on the massive transformation of the built world, which includes construction, infrastructure development, urban planning and especially the green transformation. The gap between required skilled labour and the supply available to meet the demand is predicted to further widen considerably in the coming decade. Technology plays a central role in responding to this challenge: Manual work required to perform tasks can be significantly reduced, while the speed by which a skilled labour force can be trained can be considerably increased.
Changing customer expectations
COVID-19 has disrupted traditional real estate occupancy patterns and overturned the strategies of commercial real estate portfolio allocations. Office occupancy rates are today still well below pre-pandemic levels. Forward-thinking companies are enabling flexible work practices to attract and retain talent in the shift to work from home or work from everywhere.
