Why boards and investors are rethinking what they need from their technology leaders.
Technology is becoming much more closely linked to how real estate businesses perform and create value. That is changing what boards and investors need from their technology leaders, and, increasingly, where they look for them.
The role of technology in real estate has been evolving for some time, but the pace and breadth of change is growing.
Data is informing decisions about assets and customers. Digital platforms are changing the customer experience. Smart technology is changing how buildings are operated, and cyber security is firmly on the board agenda.
AI is accelerating much of this. At MIPIM earlier this year, AI featured heavily in conversations with leaders across the sector, but rarely as a conversation about AI alone. The focus was much more practical: where can technology improve performance, reduce costs or support growth? Where should we invest? And do we have the leadership in place to make it happen?
Why Is Technology Leadership Becoming More Important in Real Estate?
Of course, real estate businesses have been investing in technology for decades. ERP programmes, cloud migration, PropTech, cyber security and digital platforms are nothing new.
What is changing is what businesses expect that technology to deliver.
Technology now has a much more direct bearing on performance. It influences how assets are developed and operated, how customers interact with a business, how teams work, where investment is made and how quickly an organisation can respond to change.
AI adds another layer to that opportunity. McKinsey estimates that AI could unlock up to $550 billion across the real estate value chain, with much of that value coming from redesigning end-to-end processes rather than simply improving individual tasks.
The technology itself is only part of it. Deciding where it can make a meaningful difference, changing established ways of working and making sure the investment delivers a return all require strong leadership.
We’re seeing that in our conversations with private equity investors and operating partners. Technology leadership is increasingly part of the value creation discussion. Investors want to know whether the leadership team has the capability to use technology to improve performance, support growth and strengthen the business ahead of exit.
What Do Boards Need from Senior Technology Leaders in Real Estate?
As technology becomes more important to the business and its performance, the role of the person leading it is naturally becoming broader too.
The job title varies considerably across real estate – CIO, CTO, Technology Director – but in reality that’s probably the least important part of the conversation. What matters is what the business needs that person to do.
What we’re seeing is more weight being placed on their ability to understand where the business is heading, see where technology can make a genuine difference and know where investment is worthwhile – and where it isn’t.
They also need to be able to make that change happen. Technology touches so many parts of the business that these leaders need to work closely with the CEO, CFO and wider leadership team, influence decisions and bring people with them, while keeping the fundamentals secure, resilient and working as they should.
It’s a broad remit, and that’s starting to influence the type of people boards are willing to consider.
Do Technology Leaders in Real Estate Need Sector Experience?
Not always. Real estate has traditionally placed a high value on sector experience when hiring senior technology leaders, and for good reason. Its systems, stakeholders and asset structures can be highly specialised, and knowing the market can shorten the learning curve.
But we’re starting to see clients look at this differently.
Sector experience still matters, but we’re having more conversations about the capability the business actually needs:
Who has already built the technology capability we’re trying to create?
That can take the search well beyond the traditional real estate talent pool.
If the priority is transforming the customer journey, there may be highly relevant experience in retail or consumer businesses. If it’s getting more from data, financial services or digital platforms may offer stronger comparisons. And if the challenge is building a more scalable technology function, leaders from software or other digitally mature businesses may have already tackled many of the same issues.
The sector experience premium isn’t disappearing, but it is beginning to weaken.
For some roles, deep real estate knowledge will remain essential. For others, the experience most relevant to the next phase of the business may have been gained somewhere else entirely.
This is still an emerging shift rather than the norm. But we’re seeing more boards prepared to look beyond the traditional real estate talent pool when the capability they need has already been built elsewhere.
What Does All This Mean For Home Builders?
These changes are playing out across real estate, but home building is a useful example of just how broad the technology opportunity has become.
Technology now has a role to play across almost the entire home building journey:
- Land and planning: using data to assess opportunities and navigate increasingly complex planning processes.
- Procurement and construction: connecting systems and data to improve visibility of costs, suppliers, programmes and site performance.
- Sales and forecasting: using better data to understand demand, pricing and the customer pipeline.
- Customer experience: improving the journey from initial research and reservation through to completion and aftercare.
- Connected homes: responding to changing expectations around the technology customers want in their homes.
- AI and automation: redesigning processes to improve productivity and decision-making.
There’s a lot of ground for technology to cover, and different home builders will naturally be at very different stages of that journey. That makes the leadership brief particularly important.
For one business, the priority might be getting better data into the hands of commercial and operational teams. For another, it could be modernising core systems, improving the customer journey or finding practical applications for AI and automation. Others may be looking at how technology can help improve productivity across the development process.
The technology leader doesn’t need to be equally expert in every one of these areas. But they do need to understand where the biggest opportunities are for that particular business, set the priorities and bring the rest of the organisation with them.
And that brings us back to where you find that experience. In some cases, the strongest candidate will have built their career in home building or the wider real estate sector. In others, the person who has already solved the problem may have done it somewhere else.
We’re seeing greater openness to leaders from consumer, retail and digital commerce businesses, particularly where the priority is customer experience, better use of data or large-scale transformation.
Of course, moving from retail into home building isn’t simply a case of applying the same playbook. The real test is whether someone can take what they’ve learned elsewhere and apply it successfully to the realities of a home building business.
Five Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Technology Leader
01
What does the business need technology to change or improve over the next three to five years?
02
What role do we need this leader to play in the wider business, beyond leading the technology function?
03
What have they already transformed, and how relevant is that experience to the challenges we face?
04
Are we unnecessarily narrowing the talent pool by making real estate experience a prerequisite?
05
Can they connect investment in technology, data and AI to measurable improvements in performance and value?
The answers will shape both the leadership capabilities required and where to look for them. For some appointments, deep real estate experience will be critical.
Finding the Right Technology Leader for a Real Estate Business
In summary, as technology becomes more closely linked to business performance, growth and value creation, the leadership brief is changing with it.
For boards and investors, it means keeping an open mind about where the right experience might come from.
The right technology leader may already know real estate inside out. Or they may have built exactly the capability you need in retail, financial services, software or another digitally mature business.
The important question is: who has already done what we’re trying to do?
At Redgrave, our Digital, Data & Technology team works with boards and investors to answer that question, defining the leadership requirement and looking both within real estate and beyond it to find the relevant experience.
Speak to our Digital, Data & Technology team about your next technology leadership appointment.
About the Author
Rind Bajwa, Partner and Head of Digital, Data & Technology, works with boards and investors to define the technology leadership they need and identify the right talent both within real estate and beyond the traditional sector talent pool.
If you’re thinking about the technology leadership your business will need for its next phase, contact Rind to compare notes and discuss what we’re seeing across the market.
