Tomorrow's real estate deal is digital

Tomorrow's biggest real estate deal may not be the building with the most square meters, but the building that can look furthest ahead digitally. For decades, the real estate market has thought primarily in terms of location, square meters, rental prices, yield, energy labels and bricks. That way of thinking has served the sector well.

But the economy is changing. AI is growing, data use is growing, cloud use is growing. Buildings are becoming smarter, organizations are becoming more digital, and virtually every workplace is becoming more dependent on connectivity.

That raises a central question: if our economy is becoming increasingly digital, why do real estate deals still focus mainly on the physical property?

From square meters to digital capacity

The value of commercial real estate is traditionally determined by factors such as location, accessibility, quality, tenants, lease terms, sustainability and scarcity. Those factors remain important. But a new value driver is being added: digital readiness.

A building can look fantastic on paper, but if future users cannot realize their digital ambitions there, a new form of functional obsolescence emerges. An office may have sufficient square meters but insufficient digital capacity. A property can be sustainable and digitally behind. A top location can be physically excellent in terms of accessibility, yet digitally underconnected.

The idea that follows from this: tomorrow's location has two forms of accessibility, physical and digital. This shift from square meters to data capacity touches the core of how we assess real estate.

AI is changing the demand for real estate

AI is not just a technological development. It changes how organizations work and, with that, what they expect from their premises. Companies process more data, use more cloud capacity, connect more smart devices, automate more, and place higher demands on speed, continuity, cybersecurity and redundancy.

As a result, the housing question is changing. Today, an entrepreneur asks: how many square meters do I need? Tomorrow, that same entrepreneur asks: can this building digitally support my organization? And after that: can this building also handle our AI ambitions five years from now?

Real estate therefore no longer just facilitates space, but increasingly digital operations. Anyone who wants to understand what AI demands from a building inevitably ends up looking at the infrastructure beneath the floor.

What is digital real estate?

Digital real estate is not simply a building with WiFi or fiber. It is real estate in which digital infrastructure is considered, from the outset, an essential part of the building's quality and functionality.

• high-quality connectivity and fiber infrastructure;
• redundancy and internal data cabling;
• enterprise WiFi and secured technical and server rooms;
• cybersecurity at building level and access control;
• IoT, smart building technology and monitoring;
• digital continuity and sufficient capacity for future applications;
• clear responsibilities between owner and user.

The comparison is simple: bricks form the skeleton of a building, installations keep it alive, but digital infrastructure is increasingly becoming the nervous system.

A building full of sensors can still be digitally fragile. Smart is not about how much technology is installed, but about whether the infrastructure underneath it can keep growing.

From smart building to digitally future-proof building

There is a difference between a building that is called smart today and a building that is actually digitally future-proof. A building can be full of sensors and still have a weak digital foundation. An app, smart lighting or a digital access system does not automatically make a building future-proof.

Smart is not only about how much technology a building has, but above all about the infrastructure on which that technology can keep growing. A truly smart building must be able to anticipate technology that may not even be widely used today. See also why IT infrastructure forms the foundation of smart buildings.

Tomorrow's deals

Picture two comparable office buildings. Same city, comparable square meters, comparable rent, comparable energy label. Building A has limited digital infrastructure and requires substantial investment to support new technology. Building B has high-quality connectivity, redundancy, modern cabling, well-designed technical rooms, clear IT demarcation, and infrastructure that can grow with its users.

Which building is genuinely more future-proof? And more importantly: which building would an AI, technology, financial or knowledge-intensive organization choose if it is looking ten years ahead?

Digital quality can influence lettability, tenant choice, user experience, vacancy risk, investment decisions, CAPEX, operational continuity and future-proofing, and ultimately, possibly, the value of real estate. An important nuance belongs here: the idea that a higher IT-label automatically leads to a higher property value is a vision on future valuation, not a proven automatism. What can be demonstrated is the role digital quality plays in yield, acquisition and disposition.

From ESG to ESG plus digital

We measure energy use, CO2, health and wellbeing. We assess accessibility and calculate square meters down to the decimal. But where does the digital quality of the building stand?

In many real estate listings, the energy label of a property is immediately visible, while a prospective tenant has to find out for themselves what digital infrastructure is present. Perhaps digital transparency is one of the next major steps in professional real estate. The relationship between digital infrastructure, ESG and value makes this visible.

The role of IT-Label

IT-Label is the independent translation layer between real estate, IT and the user. The task is to make complex technical information understandable and to make the digital delivery level of commercial real estate insightful. Not by turning every tenant into an IT specialist, but by helping to answer one simple question: what can this building digitally support?

An IT-label audit provides insight into relevant parts of the digital infrastructure, and classifications help compare buildings more effectively. What the energy label did for energy performance, a digital classification may be able to do for the digital readiness of real estate: creating a shared language.

For investors, owners and advisors

For investors, developers and asset managers, the question shifts from what does my building yield today to which organizations do I want to be able to house five or ten years from now. As digitalization becomes more important for virtually every sector, digital infrastructure can become part of the strategic positioning of an asset. An investment in it is then not solely an IT investment, but also an investment in the usability and appeal of tomorrow's real estate. That starts by mapping out the value of your real estate.

The real estate advisor is also asking a different question. Not just how many employees, how many parking spaces and what rent, but also: what kind of organization needs to be able to work here in five years? A good housing advisor looks at today's space as well as the digital development a company wants to be able to undergo tomorrow.

The new definition of location

In real estate, the rule was always: location, location, location. But location is taking on new meaning. Not just where the building stands, but also: what is it connected to, how reliable is that connection, how secure is the infrastructure, and how much digital growth can this location facilitate?

Tomorrow's top location is not only excellently accessible by road, rail or public transport. Tomorrow's top location is also digitally excellently accessible. And that ultimately touches on a bigger question: can we build a digital economy without also developing digital real estate? AI does not exist only in data centers and the cloud, the technology is used from millions of physical workplaces.

Take the next step

The future of real estate remains physical. People will keep meeting each other, organizations will need workplaces, buildings will represent value. But on top of that physical world, a digital layer is emerging, and it is precisely that layer that increasingly determines how usable and future-proof a building is.

Want to know what your building can digitally support and where it stands on the scale from PREMIUM to SHELL? Take a look at what the IT-label involves as a starting point and get insight into the digital readiness of your real estate. Tomorrow's biggest real estate deal may not be the building with the most square meters, but the building that can look furthest ahead digitally.