Property Management recap of 2021
Tallinn-based property management company Moderan 2021 recap shows that Covid was merely a bump in the road for the property industry. With the real estate and property sector on the rise, proptech solutions are surging. It’s a better time than ever to get on board with digitization and companies only have to benefit from the transition. Moderan lease and commercial property management software is the best option for CRE owners to go digital, optimise their property management and grow property value.
Proptech has been a hot topic in real estate for a while now, but in 2020, Covid left an understandable dent to the whole real estate industry. With travel restrictions, lockdowns and working from anywhere shift, the property industry along with proptech companies initially took a hard hit. In 2020, global venture capital in commercial real estate proptech dropped sharply after the pandemic hit by almost 80% compared to 2019. Yet, the sector successfully weathered the test, most of them are seeing a rise in sales and vigorously recruiting new people.
Property management digitization is on fast forward
Moderan Co-founder & CEO Kristi Hakkaja notes: “After the initial shock, the pandemic might even have been a blessing in disguise for property management tech companies. On the one hand, real estate managers needed to work as efficiently as possible to mitigate the situation and keep costs low, on the other hand, the tenants were expecting more professional and flexible service than ever before.” This only ignited the growing hunger for technology.
Even though many companies still use spreadsheets as the primary tool, there are specialized solutions to automate most key processes, i.e. leasing, budgeting and reporting. Yet, many CRE companies are still unsure which solutions could deliver the highest return on investment. Moderan gives them the tools and the high-quality data they need.
Moderan software makes upgrading from Excel and maximizing commercial property revenue easy. It’s focused on the unique needs of commercial property management, offering property and spaces management, as well as the most extensive lease rent-roll tool and automated utility calculations.
Moderan is going strong in 2021
In 2021, Moderan has been going and growing strong – the team has grown by 80% in the past year and they’ve expanded to 4 new markets: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada and Hungary. Their software is used to manage over € 3 billion worth of assets with more than 2 million m² of leasable space, 650+ buildings and 10 000+ tenants.
As a nice change that also supports fast expansion, on-site real estate expos and forums are finally back. This year, Moderan has participated in 6 events all over Europe, from EXPO Real 2021 in Munich with nearly 20,000 participants, to our own Commercial Real Estate Management Conference in Tallinn where Moderan was discussing “Concerns and solutions for the introduction of CRE technology”. And across Europe, Moderan was present at the Polis Convention in Düsseldorf, The Baltic Real Estate Leaders (BREL) Forum, Baltic Real Estate Investment Forum & Awards (BREIF), and Prague Property Forum, which all bring together the key players in the region. Good job to all the organizers for managing these great events yet again!
It was also a pleasure to see Moderan customers being recognized for their innovative approaches. On BREIF Awards 2021, recognizing the best projects of the year, Moderan is proud to have been able to support many of the winners and nominees, i.e. Kaamos, VPH and Colliers (for SĀGA Shopping Center).
Moderan partner and integration network is also growing in leaps and bounds. This year alone they’ve integrated with Standard Books and Visma Horizon (accounting), Siemens Desigo CC, Agatark, Delta E, Fidelix (remote metering), Casavi. Wowflow (facility management) and many more are also on the way.
Kristi Hakkaja says that Moderan is continually hiring and expanding: “We’re growing in all aspects and we are happy to see key players like EFTEN Capital, Capital Mill, Riga Plaza & IAD Investments placing their trust in us. It’s definitely motivating to see that from Baltic top 10 local CRE players, 60% already use Moderan or have started a pilot. Furthermore, working with Slovakia’s largest real estate fund this year has taught us a lot about the specifics of the Central European property market. This all comes to show we’re doing the right thing.”
Looking ahead to 2022 and beyond
In the upcoming years, technological solutions are becoming ever more important. For one thing, environmental requirements are causing a surge in data needs. Over the past years, numerous building certification systems (e.g. LEED or BREEAM) have been established worldwide, aiming to make the building sector more sustainable or future-proof. According to these standards, buildings should not only be planned, constructed and renovated sustainably, but also operated sustainably.
Both publicly listed funds and corporate tenants are striving to be ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) certified. Anyone looking to conduct high-quality environmental analysis, should have started collecting detailed data yesterday. Moderan has provided customers such data collection tools for some time now – as a result, all Moderan users have accumulated detailed data for several years. They’ll have no problem in generating sufficient reports needed for these certifications.
“One of our large corporate tenants requested a 12-month overview of their energy consumption for each meter, which they need to provide for the corporate ESG reporting. They were pleasantly surprised, when I delivered it to their mailbox in less than 20 minutes. This is what Moderan has enabled us,” summarizes Jānis Benfelds from Mūkusala Business Centre the value Moderan generates for complex business centres.
On another environmentally related note, the constant electricity price fluctuations make efficient utility calculations more important than ever. The tenants will expect even more precise metering and utility cost calculations and analysis. Moderan’s powerful utility calculation engine makes monthly utility calculations easier, smarter and faster than ever.
All in all, using the right tools and efficiently utilizing data will help CRE companies work smarter and greener and uncomplicate property management for all parties involved. As Kristi Hakkaja notes: “We’ve seen first hand how real estate companies committing to adopting new technologies have the right mindset and tools to beat competition and turn challenges in their favour. Moderan in looking forward to even bigger appetite for proptech solutions and growth in the upcoming year.”
