NVM sees the digital economy, but does it see the building?

The real estate market assesses buildings on location, surface area, accessibility, energy label and technical quality. That is a refined system, built up from years of data, guidelines and valuation practice. Yet it is striking that a characteristic that is becoming ever more decisive for the daily use of a building still barely has a fixed place: digital infrastructure.

That is remarkable, precisely because the trade association sees the importance of digitalization clearly. NVM and NVM Business point in their publications to the rise of AI, the growing space demand from data centers and the entanglement of energy, technology and real estate. The reasoning is clear: artificial intelligence requires computing power, computing power requires data centers, data centers require energy and digital infrastructure, and all of that eventually lands in real estate.

But then comes the follow-up question this article examines. If digital infrastructure becomes strategic for our economy, how is that digital infrastructure then assessed at the office or commercial building where that digital economy actually takes place? We looked at what NVM communicates, what an agent tells a tenant, how valuers look at it, and what an entrepreneur can actually see on Funda in Business.

NVM sees the digital economy, and rightly so

Starting with NVM itself, it is clear that digitalization is not a side issue. NVM Holding positions itself as the technological foundation of the Dutch real estate market and provides agents and valuers with property data, integrations and technology. NVM Business writes about AI and about data centers as an increasingly strategic part of the economy, with the warning that the Netherlands could miss opportunities if there is not enough room for that infrastructure.

That is a strong starting point. It shows that the sector understands the macro development: AI and real estate are becoming structurally intertwined. Attention in that discussion mainly goes to the question of where the digital economy is physically housed, and to the associated energy and space requirements.

What receives less attention in that discussion is the building at the micro level. Not the data center, but the regular office or commercial building where an organization works, holds meetings, makes video calls and runs cloud applications. The strategic view of data centers and the operational view of the individual property do not yet run in parallel.

What does NVM advise the agent?

The logical next step is the question of what tools a Business agent receives to inventory digital quality during a property inspection or leasing advice. Think of internet and fiber, data cabling, wifi, redundancy, available providers, server and patch rooms, cybersecurity, smart building facilities and the possibility to scale up.

In the public guidelines and publications we consulted, we found no uniform, building-oriented classification for digital infrastructure with which an agent records these topics in a standardized way. Public publications often refer to member environments, training courses and standards for detailed knowledge; what exactly exists there in terms of structured fields cannot be fully determined from the outside.

An important nuance: that is different from concluding that nothing happens. It means that digital infrastructure does not yet appear to be a fixed, comparable part of standard property information, as is the case with the energy label. The topic mainly lives on as free text and incidental attention, not as a methodology.

From free text to comparable data

That distinction is the core of the matter. A sentence like "fiber present" is information, but it is not data that can be compared. The difference between loose descriptions and standardized building information is exactly the subject that IT infrastructure in the leasing brochure keeps running into.

What does the agent actually tell a tenant?

Translate this to practice. An entrepreneur is looking for a thousand square meters of office space. The agent can accurately state how many square meters there are, what the rent and service costs are, how many parking spaces come with it, what energy label the building has, how the climate installation works and at what fit-out level the space is delivered.

For IT, the description may then simply say "fiber present". But what does the tenant really know from that? Which providers are available, what capacity can be delivered, is redundancy possible, how do connections enter the building, what internal data cabling is in place, how is the backbone set up, which ICT rooms exist and can the whole thing be scaled up? And above all: what does the landlord provide and what must the tenant arrange themselves? That division is central to the question of who arranges the IT in leased property.

The agent does not need to become an IT specialist. He only needs to be able to say, in understandable language, what a building can digitally handle.

So the relevant question is not whether the agent should start measuring things himself. The question is whether he can rely on a uniform, independent translation, so that he can communicate digital quality just as clearly as an energy label.

And what does the valuer do?

According to common practice, a commercial valuation report contains financial, legal, structural and sustainability aspects. The question is whether digital infrastructure is already included in it as a separate building quality. Looking at NRVT regulations, practice guidelines and international frameworks such as the IVS and EVS, and where relevant RICS, connectivity is not an explicitly required, separately named component at the level of cabling, redundancy or ICT rooms.

That does not rule out that a valuer takes it into account. There is a difference between a mandatory report component and a factor that a valuer can consider once it demonstrably affects market value, letability, CAPEX, risk or marketability. That is exactly where the opening lies. If digital quality influences occupier demand, it becomes a variable that can be relevant to valuation and return.

To be able to weigh something like that, a valuer must first be able to identify it. A standardized designation turns a hard-to-grasp technical fact into a recognizable building characteristic, comparable to the way the energy label found its way into valuation practice.

Does digital infrastructure influence value?

That question deserves an honest answer rather than an assumption. Internationally, initiatives exist that assess digital building quality, such as WiredScore and SmartScore, which indicates that there is market demand for objective information about connectivity and smart facilities. Research into the relationship between connectivity, letability and occupier demand points to a link, although the exact extent per market and building type requires care.

We are therefore not claiming here that an IT1 building is automatically worth more than an IT3 building. We are, however, posing the relevant valuation question: if digital infrastructure gains influence over investment costs, letability, occupier demand and risk, should a valuer ultimately be able to name this quality? The link between digital infrastructure, ESG and value makes that question increasingly urgent.

And then Funda, and especially Funda in Business

On Funda, a consumer can filter on numerous characteristics. Digital facilities such as fiber, internet capacity or smart home equipment usually appear in the free property description, not as a structured field on which a user can search or compare. What an agent can technically enter and what is visible and filterable for the visitor are two different things.

On Funda in Business, the same pattern is visible for offices and commercial space. By default, surface area, energy label, parking, facilities, climate, location, accessibility, rent and service costs are displayed. In practice, structured fields for fiber, available providers, capacity, redundancy, data cabling, ICT space, wifi infrastructure or a digital classification are missing. Digital characteristics appear as an incidental mention in the text.