Women of real estate discuss smart cities, proptech, and social change

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

The G20 female real estate business meet in Madrid to discuss the future of the sector

Smart cities, new technologies, social changes and sustainability are some of the topics discussed by representatives of companies such as Colonial, Azora and Savills-Aguirre Newman in Madrid, organized by the Consorci de la Zona Franca and Woman Power.

Blanca Sorigué, General Director of the International Salon of Logistics (SIL Barcelona); Anna Gener, President and CEO of Savills-Aguirre Newman Barcelona; Carmen Panadero, President of Wires; Cristina García-Peri, Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Grupo Azora; Consuelo Villanueva, Director of Institutions and Large Accounts of Sociedad de Tasación and Carmina Ganyet, Colonial's General Corporate Director, spoke at the Hesperia Hotel in Madrid to talk about the future of real estate.

Baker landed into a debate on the concept of smart cities. "Not only cities, but buildings and citizens ... it is the direct application of technology in the real estate world, and it is important for its efficiency but also for the sustainability of the planet."

"In 2050, 80% of humanity will live in cities. No matter how big the city is, it must be smart," she said.

Villanueva delved into real estate and put on the map the key that is turning real estate into a smarter sector: proptech. "They are very incorporated, but they still have a lot to say. They drive your own future and improve processes, which will be key."

García-Peri, from Azora, went a step further and broke a spear in favor of financing and supporting this type of technology companies. "I think the problem with 'proptech' in Europe is that it is very atomized. Most of these companies are born in the United States, where they have a huge market and financing is the order of the day," she explained.

"In Europe it is different and this has to change. It is very important that the private sector gives these companies the opportunity to test their technology and help them to mature, as it has a brutal impact," explained García-Peri, who also believes that "the big companies of the sector will assemble a platform together that financed these entrepreneurs and that they could act on our assets."

"It would be positive for the Spanish property without a doubt. If we want to make a qualitative leap, we will not be able to do it one by one. We would become 'the place to go' for anyone who had a good idea in Europe, would teach us, and we would benefit from it," she concluded.

Carmina Ganyet, from Colonial, assured that the real estate change involves technology. "The transition is great, and we have no capacity to assume it: it is impossible for any sector to interpret all the new technology that comes day after day, and I agree that it will not be achieved without collaboration," she said. "There is a capacity to dream, to ask for what we have always wanted to develop, and I think we are in a wonderful moment for the real estate business."

Coworking ... is there a bubble?

Another issue that has created more debate among the speakers have been new real estate trends such as 'coworking' and 'coliving'. Anna Gener explained that "they have broken in with extraordinary strength and continue to hire and demand more and more spaces, and it is increasingly difficult to quench their thirst for new locations.

"They have penetrated society because they satisfy the need for flexibility, and that was not there before. Technologists do not know how many people they will need in six months or in a year ... and this helps them, since until now real estate did not have this solution covered," said Gener, who also adds as a point in favor that "they create community".

For Colonial, the coworking boom is in response to a "natural need of the real estate sector and its customers".

"We saw two years ago that it was not a trend, it was an evolution of the office business", explained the director. "We realized when we rehabilitated the old headquarters of Crédit Lyonnais in Paris. It had an exceptional location and an income of the most expensive in the city, although our surprise was to see groups like Facebook, which have always preferred to open their offices on campus in the periphery, wanted to settle there," said Ganyet. "It's talent retention and flexibility, and that's what coworking gives you," she said.

As for coliving, Panadero assures that "it is the revolution of the spaces of work taken to the house".

"There are new ways of living. With spaces and shared services, a community. Housing solutions for new family models ", said the director, although it gives a twist to the concept: "the mixed business model is the key. People who work in coworkings of the colivings is being created now and there is a lot of evolution ahead."

But not everything is pat on the back for the coworking. The Azora director is somewhat more skeptical with the model. "At the point of flexibility offered against traditional brick, I am less optimistic: real estate has attracted a lot of money by offering active investors that attract long-term tenants. The coworking questions this. Investors are beginning to analyze that, if a company has a high percentage rented to companies of coworking, the valuation of the asset lowers, and penalizes its investment," she said. "In the City of London, giants like WeWork start having problems to rent buildings for this handicap and they are starting to buy," he concludes.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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