FAZ: “Digitalisation won’t replace a single employee”
Four questions for: Markus Reinert, IC Immobilien Gruppe
The real estate industry suffers a shortage of skilled workers and a tarnished image
Much has been said elsewhere about Germany’s shortage of highly skilled workers. To what extent is this becoming a problem for the real estate industry?
In articles about the real estate sector, it is frequently claimed that the industry benefits from a robust economy. In my opinion, however, this view is overly simplistic. After all, growth could be potentially even greater if there were enough highly skilled workers. Of course, a lack of product and a scarcity of investment opportunities are holding the industry back, but it’s important not to underestimate the impact of the skilled labour shortage on the real estate industry. Competition, sometimes very fierce competition, has broken out between companies looking to recruit top-tier talent and, ultimately, recruitment consultants seem to be the main beneficiaries. Rather than investing specifically in training and developing young professionals, companies are increasingly poaching employees from one another. Then there’s the very real risk that seasoned real estate professionals are being lost to other sectors. After all, the shortage of skilled workers is not limited to just one or two industries and there are a lot of other sectors that can make good use of real estate specialists as lateral entrants.
Which industry subsectors face the greatest challenges?
The shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry is well documented. A number of property and asset management companies have also been forced to turn down new mandates because they simply don’t have the requisite personnel. Investment companies, for example, are struggling with the same problems. Unfortunately, some roles in the real estate sector are still widely regarded as comparatively unattractive, including, unfortunately, the property management business. This is largely due to ignorance. After all, property managers are a widely underestimated, but extremely important, link in the real estate value chain. In terms of the real estate industry, young talent with the highest potential is most attracted to the role of asset manager, a position that allows them to act as the face of the company to investors and tenants. Highlighting the benefits of property management is therefore an enormously important task for the industry.
What can the industry do to repair its tarnished image among large sections of the population?
Although the real estate industry is one of the largest global employers, it really does struggle with a tarnished reputation – and wrongly so. In Germany, when people think of the real estate industry, the first thoughts that come to mind are either of estate agents or major international investors. In reality, of course, the industry is far more diverse. On the public stage, however, hardly anyone ever talks about commercial real estate or professional real estate management. And this is precisely where we need to start. The industry already has opportunities and platforms it can use to improve public perception. In Germany, valuable industry-wide initiatives have been in place for years now. For instance, we have the German Property Federation (ZIA), the Institute for Corporate Governance in the German Real Estate Industry (ICG) and numerous regional and supra-regional real estate associations, all of which are very active in working with market participants to provide information about the real estate industry, including its tasks, objectives and values, and to thereby improve public perception. In this regard, however, we still have a long and rocky road ahead of us. Despite the strides we have already made, when it comes to young professionals and high-potential talent, we still need to raise our game, provide more information and be more effective in lobbying for the industry’s interests. We are still a long way from restoring the image of the real estate industry to where it should be, namely as an attractive employer and responsible partner of society as a whole.
To what extent can the shortage of skilled workers in the real estate industry be offset by digitalisation?
In terms of digitalisation, the real estate industry is a long way behind other sectors, such as the chemical and automotive industries. Right now, the greatest potentials of digital technologies in the real estate sector are in the collection, documentation and evaluation of real estate-specific data. Digitalisation can make us faster and more efficient, but won’t replace a single employee. Conversely, this also means that digitalisation cannot and will not compensate for the existing shortage of skilled workers.
