Digitisation still sluggish despite Covid, survey finds

Despite coronavirus forcing many businesses to operate remotely, one-third of real estate investors have stated digitisation has had little to no effect on the sector over the past six months. A quarter of respondents who took part in the survey by virtual data room provider Drooms said digitisation has had a significant impact on the sector, while 41% said it had only had a moderate impact. The survey, which received 538 responses from investors across Europe, also showed that 43% of the sector believed digitisation would make their business more efficient. Just under a third (30%) said tech would result in cost reductions for their business if adopted and 29% said they had little options available to replace paper-based processes with digital ones. Roughly 36% said remote working will be the most important issue for property moving forward. Drooms chief executive Alexandre Grellier said: “The coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on the digitisation of the commercial property market, albeit not to the expected extent, given that the industry is still performing well, despite the challenging environment.” To send feedback, e-mail lucy.alderson@egi.co.uk or tweet @LucyAJourno or @estatesgazette