The residential real estate sector is going to see a few changes in the near future as businesses continue to open up their office environments, travel and immigration resume to pre-pandemic levels and Canadians gain a sense of confidence in venturing out of their homes on a more regular basis. Though human interactions will see a subtle shift from the pre-pandemic era, how residents use their living spaces will continue to evolve. This is an opportunity for real estate companies to re-evaluate the ways in which they manage their properties. Regardless of their approach to marketing, resident relations and other operations – the value of a viable energy strategy is gaining importance in the Canadian real estate sector. Residential property owners can increase asset values, boost stakeholder satisfaction and ensure compliance by adopting smart energy consumption practices. That’s best done strategically, especially as costs remain under heavy scrutiny and ESG accountability assumes ever-greater importance. First step: Utilize utility data to minimize costs Understanding and documenting energy consumption across a portfolio should be the first step in building a value-add energy strategy. Why? Because this operational area is one of a property’s largest controllable operating expenses. Understanding and harnessing utility data can make a property more valuable, more likely to retain residents, more easily marketed for sale, more compliant and more attractive to prospective tenants and investors and less likely to require concessions to rent. Advanced automated utility expense management systems also reduce duplicate payments, late fees, system interface errors and inaccurate spend measurements. They replace the cumbersome process of tracking consumption in excel, and wading through stacks of paper utility bills with digital invoice transmission and automated usage validation. Along with creating a single solution for invoice tracking, payments, budgeting and reporting, these systems...

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...