If you saw Trustek’s 2023 audit data earlier this year, then you’re already familiar with the mantra: “You cannot improve what you don’t measure.” Data is the key to understanding and unlocking any property’s full potential, but so many property owners and managers have yet to discover the immense value of collecting and analyzing building data.
Through this interview we conducted with Trustek CEO Freddie Pritchard-Smith, you’ll come to understand the importance of data in property management, the types of data that should be collected, the best methods for doing so, and the transformative insights that can be gained through effective data analysis.
01 Why is collecting data on real estate properties so important in today's market?
The way we use real estate has changed from the traditional models, for both commercial and residential real estate.
Before, we had to be in the office to complete work, but now with access to cloud software and connectivity (when reliable), work can be done from anywhere. For commercial buildings, data collection is a must for understanding occupancy trends, energy consumption, and other key indicators of a thriving space. Without the right data, property managers will struggle to meet the increasingly dynamic needs of modern companies.
On the residential side, data helps property owners and managers to create that thriving space for tenants by tracking things like maintenance needs, energy efficiency, and tenant satisfaction. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
02 What are the most effective methods or technologies currently available for collecting and managing real estate property data?
The most effective measure is to define what data is most valuable to you to make informed real estate decisions. As not all data is valuable data. Once you have defined what this is, ensure that it can be accurately and reliably collected and reported automatically to those that need to see the data.
The method then depends on the data. For example, this could be consumption data taken from a building management system (BMS) or air quality data taken from an IoT sensor.
03 Can you discuss the role of IoT (Internet of Things) devices in collecting data for building management?
We have completed the audits of 4 million sq ft of commercial offices in the UK. From a landlord/management perspective, there is very limited IoT deployment in buildings. So the first step starts with: What data do I need and how can I automate the access to this?
04 How should property managers balance the need for data collection with concerns about tenant privacy and data security?
Transparency is critical. Being transparent from the beginning about why the data is being collected, the impact or ROI of the data for either cost saving or improving the tenant experience, will typically alay many concerns that people have.
With regards to security, ensuring that any product adheres to a cybersecurity policy standard for the organisation or other cyber accreditations is a good baseline.
05 Once data is collected, what are the key steps involved in analyzing it to derive meaningful insights for property owners and managers?
A building is only as smart as the person using the technology. Every building generates millions of data points each day, from temperature to utility consumption. What is critical is ensuring that the respective stakeholders have access to the data that they need to complete their role effectively.
For an owner, this could be the occupancy levels of a building and energy/carbon consumption to ensure that they are trending down in line with their NetZero pathway for the building.
For a property manager, this could be issue reporting, compliance, or planned maintenance schedules for work in the building.
06 How does tenant feedback and data on tenant behavior contribute to better property management and tenant experience?
Building data is only one element of business data. So it is important to remember where the office ranks in order of importance to any business.
You can't improve what you don't measure. Management teams have an unenviable job of maintaining a building and customer experience. Reporting on the number of issues resolved, time taken to resolve and a Net Promoter score is vital to demonstrate good customer service.
Transparency around this data will drive greater building loyalty and showcase a better customer experience.
07 How can predictive analytics be used to forecast trends and tenant needs?
Predictions have the possibility for the most immediate impact with regard to planned maintenance schedules. Or learning the occupancy levels over the week and automatically turning things off in the building to reduce the carbon and energy consumption for the building.
Access to sufficient data to give accurate predictions/forecasts is still blocked by the siloed nature of data points relevant to this.
08 What data do you see the most successful property managers prioritizing from residential and commercial properties?
- Utility consumption data
- Customer experience/feedback data
