April Highlights

In previous blog entries I have mentioned my work on Automated Valuation Models and the resulting Insight Paper is now available for download.

In the UK market, the drive to connect digital datasets together, for both residential and commercial properties, continues to gather pace, and the potential of the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) still needs to be more fully grasped by the sector.  The articles below from the UK Government and GeoPlace provide additional information and background on this important topic for the sector:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-standards-for-government/identifying-property-and-street-information
• https://www.ukauthority.com/articles/the-rich-promise-of-data-linking-with-uprns/

April’s video discussions ranged far and wide with contributors from the US, UK, Europe, and Oceania. 

Andrew Langridge of ARES PRISM and I discussed the evolution of technology in supporting project cost management and project controls and the opportunities to measure carbon and social value.

With many Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) coming to an end in the UK I spoke with Amir Nabil from Asseticom to explore who data and technology can help with identifying assets and managing partial renewals.

Commercial real estate faces a challenge to balance the opportunities and risks as buildings become smarter and more connected to the internet.  Noëlle Brisson and Michael Savoie from CyberReady outlined what steps owners and operators need to take to manage the cyber threats that they face.

Discover the top twelve trends for 2022 and beyond that will profoundly affect the built environment with Menno Lammers from PropTech for Good: the nature of work; net-zero; ESG; and the rise of ClimateTech.

With all the rhetoric around the application of artificial intelligence across the built and natural environment, Mazen Faloughi from ALICE Technologies showed me through in detail how their technology uses AI to optimise scheduling for the pre-construction and construction stages of major projects.

The construction sector is evolving with the increasing use of modern methods of construction and increased focus on material tracking and supply chain visibility, Sankha deep Das shared his journey in harnessing technology to track construction materials.

Technology can play a key role in improving productivity when conducting physical property surveys and Jax Kneppers of Imfuna highlighted the importance of working with industry standards and integration with other technology platforms.

LawTech can automate the creation of consistent and enforceable contracts and agreements using data and technology to help smaller, ‘unlawyered’ firms.  Charles Brecque explained how this technology can help property management firms to improve their processes.

Combining data sets for building operations and maintenance involves sophisticated BIM models, 2D drawings, technical specifications, and operational data – many of which are still stored in legacy formats such as pdfs.  Stanislas Limouzi of BIMData demonstrated how technology is allowing these disparate data sources to combined to turn data into information.

The ‘Get It Right Initiative’ (GIRI) showed significant cost impacts when reducing avoidable errors in construction projects, and Daniel O'Donoghue from CONQA told me how they are using technology to improve the quality assurance process.

Environmental product declarations (EPDs) have a key role to play in supporting governments' new sustainability strategies and policies, Rumela Atanasova from Cobuilder described the challenges and opportunities of integrating EPDs into the construction process.

ESG and wellbeing should be integrated into the whole design and development process, and Jordan Relfe of LifeProven and I discussed how the pandemic and ESG driven changes in behaviour by asset owners and developers and how we put people back at the heart of real estate.

All organisations, of whatever size or shape, face the risk of cyber attacks and Kerrie Machin from Mitigo talked me through four current themes that we all need to be aware of: remote working; cloud platforms; ransomware attacks; and email account takeovers.