Shared 28 August, 2024
Finding Success in Nuanced Times
After a challenging couple of years for real estate globally, there is a greater sense of optimism associated with the rest of 2024 and beyond. If the era of ‘lower for longer’ interest rates represented a tide that lifted all boats, we see the beginning of the new contrasting cycle. Some boats will sink, while others are rising incredibly high. Real estate investing and asset management is now more nuanced than ever before.
Today in real estate:
A recent M&G Outlook shows that as investors start to accept ‘higher for longer’ interest rates, investors will have to rely on income as the main route to achieving target returns. Asset managers benefit more today from data and fast decisions.
A more nuanced market creates some of the most attractive opportunities for those in the know.
Panattoni – Why Speed and Precision is Valued at a Premium
Panattoni is the world’s largest privately owned industrial developer and is the UK’s largest speculative developer. In today’s nuanced market, strategic decision-making speed is a requirement for growth. To achieve this, they created a Unified Data Model. Think of this as the cockpit battlestation for their ship.
As we move into an era with a higher emphasis on margins, their unified data platform “provides the transparent and scalable operational and reporting platform we need for our dynamic market growth.” This transparent and fast reporting meant that they “are in a position to supply investors with timely and accurate data and a relevant presentation of their portfolio results.” [Karolina Cieślik (Property Finance Director, Blue Assets)]
Often today, asset managers struggle to gather all important information into one place, in real time, so their ability to make informed decisions is limited.
Leading firms like Panattoni maximise their ability to enable rental overperformers and have an astute understanding of the originations of their margins. “Unified financial overview: all costs and revenues are conveniently available in one place, simplifying our financial management.” [Karolina Cieślik (Property Finance Director, Blue Assets)]
Adventum – Gaining Negotiating Leverage
Adventum Group, a fund manager focused on CEE Real Estate Investments with a proven track record in the CEE region. The management has so far executed investments in the CEE region over a total value of EUR 2 bn.
Their extensive portfolio spans four countries, hiring countless service providers across assets. Typically, receiving financial and asset information from the property management value chain can take weeks.
Like Panattoni, they realised cross-border real time monitoring is business critical for it is critical for optimal asset management and to gain an advantage over competitors. Adventum instructed all service providers across all assets to work on the fully integrated property management modules on the iREMS system. “A wide variety of financial and AM reports can now be run by our controllers, both for recurring, automated reporting and for ad-hoc drill-down analysis. It has reduced turnaround time from weeks to minutes.” Outside of faster and more precise information, they enable their service providers to focus more on purely managing the asset, achieving a more cost efficient property with happier tenants whilst also achieving more competitive tenders.
As the industry becomes increasingly margin sensitive, leading modern asset managers maintain robust control and are capable of getting more out of their assets than their competitors.
White Star – Over-Delivering to Grow
White Star Real Estate is a leading firm with 2.5m square metres of developed assets and 1.7m square metres of properties under management.
Their strategy focuses on providing quality, value for money real estate solutions for their development investors and landlord clients. They separate themselves from the noise by providing high-quality property management and accounting services, focusing on data quality, professionalism and communication speed.
“For several years now, White Star has utilised the transactional capabilities of iREMS, and worked with their team to find enhancements that bring the productivity of the system and our users.” White Star solidifies themselves as the preferred supplier via access to clear information. By delivering more value with automation they hold longer contracts and are freed to win new customers powering fast growth.
In addition to operating more efficiently and timely, White Star managed to build an Asset Management reporting platform that provides their clients with direct access to real-time dashboards.
“Thanks to the iREMS Dashboard, our property managers, the controllers, leasing managers, and building owners have one window to look into the live KPIs of their properties. This eliminates the need to create redundant data in multiple locations, which has a risk of conflicting and incomplete information.” says Steven Tichy, Managing Partner Asset & Property Management of White Star Real Estate.
With this important contribution White Star has managed to contribute key parts of the asset management reporting, adding significant value to their clients’ financial digital twins.
Conclusion
In many ways, the entire real estate value chain has become more competitive, and companies like Panattoni, Adventum, and White Star Real Estate are exemplifying how to thrive in sink-or-swim circumstances.
By remaining nimble enough to act on data driven insights, and use information to their advantage to solidify their relationships with other stakeholders, these firms are not only adapting to the new market dynamics but also setting new standards for efficiency, client service and retention, growth, and performance.
In today’s high-interest, high cost, highly competitive, and fast changing market – the ability to make informed decisions quickly, optimise asset management, and over-deliver on value-added services has become paramount.
Getting actionable insight into their assets is key. This allows them to remain adaptive. They not only maximise their portfolios’ potential but also secure a competitive edge in an increasingly challenging environment. Their forward-thinking approach is essential for success in the new era of real estate, ensuring that they remain leaders in their markets for years to come.
Written with iREMS
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