By Tamas Mark, Global Head of Real Assets at IQ-EQ and Andreas Kozma, CEO of iREMS
In today’s increasingly digital world, managing a commercial real estate portfolio is not just about tracking valuations and yields; it’s about mastering data. From data consistency to real-time reporting, investment managers need to be able to leverage data effectively in order to provide the level of service that investors are looking for.
It’s this governance of data that was in focus at Expo Real 2025, which took place in Munich in early October. Here are three questions from leading real estate managers that were posed at the event, and our take on answers to them.
Data consistency across jurisdictions
“We’re managing assets across five jurisdictions – how can we ensure data consistency and comparability across all of them?”
— Head of Portfolio Management, Pan-European Real Estate Fund
A key challenge for many real estate managers today is effectively managing assets across multiple jurisdictions. The core issue here is differences in appraisal methods, accounting rules and data collection across different regions.
The solution to this issue is simple – a unified technology platform designed to handle the intricacies of global real estate investment management. An enterprise-grade platform will be able to connect to various underlying local systems across different jurisdictions, ingesting the raw data. It will then apply a data framework to standardise different metrics, automatically handling the conversion of currencies, units of measurement, and financial classifications (e.g. mapping local classifications to the group’s central reporting standards, like IFRS or INREV).
As for data that needs to be input manually (including unstructured data), a firm can use features such as standardised dropdown menus, mandatory fields and data validation to prevent local teams from entering non-standardised data. This will help to ensure consistency and clarity across all jurisdictions.
For global real estate managers, this kind of platform can significantly streamline workflows, saving a substantial amount of time and resources. Ultimately, it can serve as a ‘single source of truth’ that sits between the decentralised local property data and the centralised reporting needs of the investment manager and its investors.
Real-time reporting for investors
“Our investors are asking for real-time reporting. What’s the most efficient way to deliver this without overhauling our entire tech stack?”
— CFO, Mid-sized Real Estate Investment Manager
In recent years, investor expectations have evolved dramatically. Today, real-time transparency is no longer optional for real estate managers; it’s a baseline requirement.
Again, the key here is a centralised technology platform. A good platform will be able to do three key things:
- Automatically pull data from different local systems, significantly reducing the time associated with data gathering
- Instantly clean and standardise the data, storing it in a centralised cloud environment (e.g. Snowflake)
- Generate on-demand reports directly from the stored cleansed data.
When a platform can do these things, it creates a seamless, automated flow from the source data all the way to the final investor reports. So, instead of spending weeks manually gathering and standardising data when clients want reports, reports can be generated in real time.
Generating predictive insights
“How do we move from reactive reporting to predictive insights? We’re drowning in data but starving for clarity.”
— Managing Partner, Private Equity Real Estate Firm
Another major challenge that many real estate firms are facing today is transforming data into predictive insights. Often, firms are swimming in data, but they don’t know how to leverage it effectively to gain valuable insights.
If a firm wants to move from reactive reporting to predictive insights – and have the ability to make data-driven decisions – the key is to deploy a tech platform that not only centralises, cleans and standardises data, but is also capable of applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions to it. With these technologies, investment managers can move from merely recording past performance to actively predicting future outcomes in a range of different areas.
One area in which these technologies can be very useful is fee forecasting. With AI, managers can better predict future income from management and performance fees, enabling them to plan ahead and run their businesses more effectively. Another area is risk management. Using AI, managers can analyse hundreds of different variables (e.g. tenant credit health, LTV ratios, economic indicators, etc.) to identify risks before they become a problem.
Of course, outputs here are only going to be as good as the quality of the data. So, it all starts with clean, standardised data, stored in a centralised location.
How we can help
In summary, the impact of a well-executed data strategy can be profound. Not only can an integrated data strategy save real estate managers significant time and resources, but it can also unlock strategic clarity, enabling managers to be more proactive.
Without a centralised data strategy, real estate managers risk falling behind in both performance and perception. As the market continues to evolve, the winners will be those who treat data not as a byproduct of operations, but as a strategic asset.
To discuss real estate data management in more detail or to find out how IQ-EQ and iREMS can support your firm with state-of-the-art technology solutions, please get in touch.
