The German property federation (ZIA) and consultancy firm Ernst & Young have published a digitalisation study as part of EXPO REAL, Germany’s largest real estate exhibition. The study included interviews with leading players in the real estate market.
In his interview, Torsten Hannusch, managing partner of the GIG group of companies focussed on the importance of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Big Data, Predictive Maintenance as well as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence.
According to Torsten Hannusch, “Digitalisation will lead to a fundamental change in the property management business. Many aspects of property management will be taken over by expert digital and even self-learning systems, leading to a revolution in our business and to a significant change in the roles played by asset, property and facility managers. Business models will be hugely influenced by customised service offers for properties and their tenants. All this will lead to significant benefits for property owners and tenants in terms of services provided, as well as lowering costs.”
The GIG group of companies has been actively involved in the digitalisation of business processes for the last several years and also strategically invests in PropTech companies to further develop their expertise in this area. The minor repairs management process has already been fully digitalised, leading to a 20% reduction in process costs. The company’s digitalisation strategy will be further expanded with the appointment of a Chief Digital Officer.