No Stone Unturned

A big change is coming when it comes to energy labels. It will have a major impact on the real estate market in the Netherlands, especially on the office market. While an energy level C label is still currently sufficient to comply with legislation, in a few years that same building would receive a much lower label. Under EU rules, energy labels are changing. 'The biggest change is that A+ to A++++ will disappear,' says ESG consultant Bart Oosterhuis of Savills in this episode of No Stone Unturned. He is joined by his colleague Iris Kampers, who warns: 'You can no longer be satisfied with label C. Look at your portfolio and filter out all the buildings with an A label. Those are safe. For everything below that, see what adjustments you will need to make.'

What does the ideal office look like? Many real estate investors and operators are looking for the answer to that question, and like to stick to the perfect office once they've found it. However, it's important to remain flexible, argues Raquel Machado (Senior Associate at M Moser) in the new episode of 'No Stone Unturned'. Don't "over-design," but involve people and keep room for development.

It is an ambitious plan by Minister De Jonge of the Dutch Housing ministry: 900,000 homes must be built in the Netherlands by 2030. Almost a third of these, 290,000, should be suitable for senior citizens. However, discussions often focus on the smaller number of homes that need to be built for the mid-rent level segment. In this new episode of the Savills podcast No Stone Unturned, Wim Wensing (Chief Investment Officer at Amvest) argues it's time to pay more attention to those senior homes.

The development of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, will turn the world upside down in the coming years. AI will also bring change to the real estate sector. This makes it possible to design the ideal building, thanks to the millions of variants that AI can create.

This is according to Herman Kienhuis, co-founder of Curiosity Venture Capital, an investor in tech start-ups. In the new episode of Savills 'No Stone Unturned' he says: “You can create millions of variants when you design a new building. And then you can filter those variants with your own criteria. As a result, you get the best design, created by an algorithm.”

Herman is joined by Maurice van Tilburg, managing director of TechLeap. He also sees the real estate sector changing under the influence of AI. “With AI you can make predictions. About traffic flows, about travel behaviour, about hotspots. That is interesting if you build real estate.” With the help of AI, you can improve the air in a building or its energy.

Existing buildings are becoming more attractive than new builds in the Dutch logistics & industrial sector. An existing building already has a zoning plan, power supply and nitrogen rights, says Martien van Deursen, Head of Benelux at Arrow Capital Partners in the new episode of Savills 'No Stone Unturned'. He believes that the development of new projects is increasingly complicated due to a number of challenges.

The office market is changing rapidly, and one of those changes is the rise of flexible offices in the Netherlands. In this new episode of the Savills podcast 'No Stone Unturned' Robert Sparreboom, Head of Customer Excellence at office investor NSI, argues that 'office as a service' will become the new normal. However, he believes that investors still overestimate the risk of flexible offices.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the choices consumers make. In this episode of the Savills podcast 'No Stone Unturned' Luc Boschmans, Managing Director Hospitality at Tristan Capital Partners, argues that although ESG is not yet the most important criterion when selecting a hotel, it will definitely change: “Sustainability needs to be our focus in order to be prepared.”

Gone are the days when an investor could buy a shopping centre and only took care of new tenants and maintenance. In the new episode of the Savills podcast No Stone Unturned, consultant Rupert Parker Brady argues that the owners of malls need to be much more involved: "Actually, they are the conductor of a symphony orchestra."