The Chief Data Officers (CDOs) are working in a relatively new role, and they are appearing in increasing numbers in the world of large corporations. What’s more, today, real estate companies are also filling such positions more and more frequently.
Capital One was the first company to employ a Chief Data Officer in 2002, and since then, more and more organizations have been offering this type of job. At the time, it was primarily financial institutions and companies in the insurance sector that were at the forefront, due to increasingly strict data management regulations. A PwC study in 2021 showed that 21 percent of the world’s 2,500 largest publicly traded companies already had a CDO, and half of these positions were filled only in 2019 and 2020.
It is no surprise that this role is expanding so rapidly, as data—thanks to technological development—has become highly valuable. In fact, we encounter new innovations on a daily basis that generate more and more statistics. This is no different in the commercial real estate market—just think of daily occupancy data in office buildings, such as which spaces are used and by how many people.
It is no coincidence that large global real estate agencies have also taken action. JLL was the first to hire a Chief Data Officer, followed by Cushman & Wakefield. The main reason behind creating this new role is that the commercial real estate market generates enormous amounts of data that must be organized, analyzed, and stored. Increasingly, specialized firms want to utilize data related to real estate—from lease agreements to occupancy rates. Real estate companies have realized they need someone in a leadership role to manage incoming information and work on turning data into value.
Previously, data managers’ responsibilities focused on data protection and security, and the position primarily attracted professionals with technical or legal backgrounds. Today, this area remains critically important, especially since cybercrime has evolved: hackers now steal data using advanced technological infrastructures. On the other hand, it is no longer just about storage—companies want to draw insights from data that can generate revenue. In other words, data as value is becoming more significant in the real estate sector as well.
Since the CDO role is still very new in many organizations, the responsibilities are continuously evolving even today. The Chief Data Officer is set to become a key position in organizing collected data and making the values derived from it marketable, especially since many companies still do not know what to do with the vast amounts of information, nor do they have a clear idea of how and on what basis it should be organized.
The data of real estate companies differ from the information of other industries in that they are far broader in scope and, in most cases, produced manually. The complexity of the real estate sector is reflected in the fact that it requires not only building-related data but also information about surrounding areas, as well as statistics on the people and activities within the buildings.
As part of organizing this data, corporate data platforms are created, which employees can use in their work. Before making a leasing or investment decision, real estate advisors who can support their opinions with detailed information and analyze a given market segment gain a competitive advantage.