Residential property investors speeding up digitalisation due to the corona pandemic is a positive development, says Terrence Wong, Yardi regional manager for Europe. However, the main reason for going online is that very soon, potential tenants will expect and demand digital services. ‘The result is happy tenants, more efficient business processes and greater profitability.’ Wong was one of those taking part in the Yardi roundtable on the use and the necessity of the further digitalisation of clients’ journeys. In the Netherlands, the leasing cycle is frequently still very laborious, says Wong. ‘Tenants don’t meet their property managers until the leasing cycle starts. Property managers are often hard to get hold of. The perception of a potential client who spends 20 minutes in the queue, is not put through and has to call back a few days later is obviously far from positive. The new tenant subsequently has to print out lots of documents to be signed, then has to pass by to view the property, and then again to sign the contract. And all this exclusively during office hours.’ Moving faster Digitalising the whole leasing cycle, both for the tenant and our own organisation, cuts out a lot of the red tape. ‘See it as a service to the tenant. Tenants want to do it all themselves through a smart app, without being tied to office hours or the property manager’s agenda. And property managers, too, want to move fast. Having tenants submit all their details digitally and allowing them to take care of many of their affairs themselves requires fewer internal employees. Furthermore, complaints can be processed and dealt with quickly, with ongoing automatic updates. This leads to happy, well-informed tenants and an efficient internal completion procedure.’ High tech and high touch According...