Data has the power to transform real estate

We must move from nice-to-have to must-have solutions, says Ron van Bloois.

As managing editor of our first-class journal on ESG and impact investing, I am always watching the playing field and the forces at play.

At the end of 2024, I was greatly impressed by some quotes from Frank Elderson, vice-chair of the European Central Bank’s supervisory board. “Good, reliable data are a cornerstone of sound risk management… To manage credit risk in the real estate sector, we need data on buildings’ energy efficiency,” he said.

Elderson was emphasising that this information is key for collateral valuations or for determining borrowers’ ability to pay back their loans.

This realisation, in my opinion, is a landmark in bringing about sustainable change in the value chain.

Supervisors need to take a more active, even pressing, role to move real estate parties along in the right direction, threatening to impose penalties for non-compliance. And data is an essential management tool, generating valuable reports and information.

Verified building data

Within the scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRD), we are dependent on reliable and verified building data.

Real-life, accurate data on both operating companies and property companies – generated by smart buildings, systems and AI – can speed up transformative change in how we think, act, measure, report, value and improve the collaboration between owner and tenant.

Nevertheless, collecting various types of data (on energy use, occupancy levels, well-being of tenants and life-cycle assessment building components), securing them in safe data warehouses, verifying them and then using them by translating them into decision-making information require a different mindset in the built environment.

It means moving from nice-to-have to must-have data-intelligence solutions, life-cycle analysis and ESG accounting. The accountants will be important stakeholders in this obligatory, data-driven flow in the real estate sector.

The direction of travel is clear. No trusted data will be out of business soon.