Commercial real estate development blueprinting

Organizations evolved series

How a real estate data strategy can add top- and bottom-line gains

Photographic Portrait of Luke Tieman
Luke Tieman

Managing Director, Wealth & Asset Management, Ernst & Young LLP

Contributors

7 minute read 13 Jan 2026

A holistic data strategy that addresses disparate, fragmented data sources can enable powerful front- and back-of-house insights.

Brian Taylor, EY Americas Real Estate Consulting leader led the development of this article.

The third installment in a series on organizational shifts within the commercial real estate industry.

In brief
  • Real estate investors face a complex and disjointed data environment. They want to unlock the power of data but frequently become stalled in the process.
  • Setting a sound data strategy – enabled by technology investment – offers compelling top- and bottom-line benefits.
  • Recent EY insight – from client work and a survey of real estate technology leaders – offers a playbook to accelerating the data strategy transformation.

How EY can help

Real estate investors can achieve competitive differentiation by prioritizing data strategies, which offer significant top- and bottom-line benefits in an increasingly complex market.

 

EY research indicates that most real estate investors – including property owner/operators, real estate funds, investment managers, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and real estate services companies – all struggle with data. The ambition to become an insight-driven organization is frequently curbed by challenges in harnessing the data itself. Real estate data is inherently disparate, fragmented across multiple sources (e.g., asset-level, investment-level, third-party data, etc.) and in various forms. Further, lack of a holistic commercial real estate data strategy to enable insights – one that includes front-of-house and back-of-house considerations – often limits progress.

 

Challenges exist, yet the opportunity to leverage data for more informed decision-making is at a pivot point. Advances in technology offer the promise of data to drive both revenue growth and operational efficiencies in commercial property investment.

 

So, how do real estate investors navigate these challenges? And how does the development of a comprehensive commercial real estate data strategy – one that accounts for the inherent nature of industry data, and the necessary tools to leverage it – move real estate investors ahead of the curve?

 

In this article, we will provide an overview of common challenges that real estate firms encounter in setting a data strategy. We will then highlight the benefits of making data a strategic priority, based on our engagement experience and a recent survey of more than 50 real estate chief technology officers and chief investment officers conducted by the EY organization. Lastly, we will offer actionable steps to becoming a differentiated, data-driven organization.

 

Challenges in leveraging data-driven real estate investment strategies

 

When it comes to unlocking the power of data, real estate investors are rarely stalled due to lack of ambition.

In fact, 60% of EY survey respondents indicate some formal data initiative is underway at their firm.

However, in practice, real estate investors typically encounter one or more challenges around data:

1. Fragmented data environment

The real estate industry relies on data inputs from a multitude of sources. And while there is no shortage of data, its disparate nature – and existence in multiple, inconsistent forms – creates a disjointed landscape and a clunky process to aggregate and analyze it. Further, a lack of consistency across data providers – whether it be inputs from property managers, external research sources or even functional teams within a given organization – hinders insights at scale

2. Lack of holistic data strategy

Many conflate “data strategy” with “technology investment.” Investment in data infrastructure varies across the landscape of real estate players.

Nearly three in four EY survey respondents report 5% or more of their IT budget goes toward data infrastructure, and some firms are simply under indexed in critical insight areas.

How EY can help

Notably, this applies predominantly to back-of-house infrastructure that enables front-of-house decision-making. Lack of a holistic data strategy that considers departments up and down the organization presents a persistent challenge to leveraging data insights.

 

3. Lack of data integration

The diverse nature of real estate data sets requires governance and consolidation of data sources. Real estate investors often lack the technical approach and capabilities to integrate and standardize data to use it at scale. As a result, data is often concentrated within the organization by function, creating disconnected silos and inconsistencies in use and taxonomy.

 

Focus on real estate data strategy for top- and bottom-line gains

Prioritizing data as a strategic, market-differentiating asset can produce powerful results for an organization. However, real estate investors can become overwhelmed in the process, questioning if the effort today is commensurate with future organizational benefits.

 

At EY, we worked with numerous real estate investors on their data journey. Through focused efforts, we typically see three compelling benefits that produce tangible, top- and bottom-line impacts for our clients:

 

1. Integrated view of the portfolio

A unified data strategy creates a comprehensive window into the business. Data is aggregated from different functional departments into a single view. This eliminates the need to toggle between reports, thus producing quicker insights. Data integration can happen across organizational departments, portfolios, and/or within functional processes of greatest value to the investor.

 

Case study

At EY we worked with a real estate investment trust (REIT) to amalgamate the various inputs (internal and external data) behind their leasing process. The initiative aimed to create an integrated view of the lease lifecycle – aligning leasing, accounting and forecasting teams through a centralized analytics platform. We worked with the following departments to create a comprehensive view of the process:

2. Increased speed, reduced errors

A sound, governance-centered data strategy fosters a culture of trust by creating a “single source of truth.” As a result, real estate investors can become more agile. In addition, by reducing manual effort around data inputs, investors are better positioned to capitalize on opportunities within their portfolios.

Case study

At EY, we worked in collaboration with a prominent owner-operator to consolidate property data from multiple operators using AI. We note key benefits of the solution.

3. Insights as a competitive advantage

Integrating data from both internal and external sources produces powerful, more holistic insights. By consolidating information from property management systems, financial databases and market research platforms, real estate investors can make more informed decisions that are aligned with real-time market conditions. The result? A shift in organizational mindset. Data analysis is transformed from being a reactive strategy, to one that is proactive and predictive.

Case study

At EY, we worked with a prominent real estate investor to aggregate a diverse data set of portfolio information with external research. We created a Master Data Management (MDM) system, defining data taxonomies and catalogues that are governed by domain quality rules to help ensure data integrity.

The strategy yielded a 20% increase in operating performance within a year’s time.

A recent EY survey also revealed that nearly two-thirds of respondents anticipate the highest return on investment (ROI) from data infrastructure investments to Asset Management and Property Operations, where both external research and internal data can enable more informed decision-making.

Actionable steps towards a holistic real estate data strategy 

With the challenges and benefits known, where can real estate investors begin – or accelerate – their data journey? Our experience shows that a critical success factor is taking smaller, actionable steps that strategically focus on areas of high impact within the organization.

Real estate investors can begin their transformation by following key steps – validated by EY experience with their industry peers:

1. Conduct a data assessment

Assess existing data systems to identify gaps in quality, accessibility and integration. Understanding the current state of data management helps prioritize improvement areas.

2. Establish a unified data architecture

Create a centralized data repository to consolidate information from various internal property management systems. This architecture should support real-time analytics for a comprehensive view of portfolio performance. 

3. Implement MDM

Develop a structured approach to data governance through MDM to help ensure data consistency and reliability. Standardized protocols minimize inaccuracies that complicate financial reporting.

4. Foster a data-driven culture

Encourage collaboration between data teams and business units to align insights with strategic goals. Promote a culture that values data-driven decision-making at all levels.

5. Monitor success

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the effectiveness of data initiatives. Regularly review these metrics to make necessary adjustments and help ensure progress toward goals. 

 

Summary 

Real estate investors face multiple challenges in developing a unified data strategy. However, in an increasingly complex market landscape, prioritizing data offers the potential of both top- and bottom-line benefits for real estate investors. Recent EY engagement experience and survey insights affirm that taking steps today can produce competitive differentiation for real estate investors tomorrow.

About this article

Photographic Portrait of Luke Tieman
Luke Tieman
Managing Director, Wealth & Asset Management, Ernst & Young LLP
Experienced financial services advisor for liquid and private markets. Digital transformation leader. Drives revenue growth, product development and scale.

Contributors

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