Webinar recap: Staying afloat in the residential real estate revolution

Our CEO Fredrik Halmøy Wisløff participated in a PropTech Connect webinar addressing how stakeholders can adapt to changing market conditions. The panel included Graham Pawson (This is Fresh), Dan Smith (RESI Consultancy), and Alton Hassan (Battersea Power Station).

Key Insights from the Panel Discussion

The Current Market Landscape

The real estate sector faces significant challenges, particularly in mid-market and Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).

An affordability crisis affects PBSA development. According to one panelist, “We don’t have a supply crisis in student accommodation—we have an affordability crisis.” Build-to-Rent (BTR) properties are increasingly attractive due to superior quality standards and flexibility that appeal to international students and young professionals.

For PBSA operators, the competitive pressure from BTR is compounding existing operational challenges. The cost of capital remains elevated, planning timelines are long, and the regulatory environment—particularly the Building Safety Act—demands documentation practices that many legacy portfolios are not equipped to deliver.

The Data Problem

Fredrik identified fragmented documentation as a critical operational barrier. Approximately 25% of property documents are duplicates, creating inefficiencies that hinder compliance and profitability. Manual systems prevent effective adaptation to regulations like the Building Safety Act.

The duplication problem is symptomatic of a deeper issue: most property portfolios have accumulated documentation across years of different systems, contractors, and ownership structures. The result is a fragmented archive where the same certificate might exist in three different formats across four different locations—and where finding the authoritative version requires manual investigation.

This fragmentation has real compliance consequences. Under the Building Safety Act, property managers must be able to demonstrate that their building records are complete, accurate, and accessible. A portfolio where 25% of documents are duplicates—and where the remaining 75% are scattered across email threads and shared drives—cannot meet this standard without significant remediation work.

Leveraging AI

Artificial intelligence transforms the industry through:

• Proactive Maintenance: Smart buildings predict maintenance needs, reducing costs and preventing emergencies
• Enhanced Tenant Communication: AI enables multilingual, self-service solutions that improve satisfaction
• Compliance Streamlining: AI organizes and analyzes critical documentation for regulatory adherence
• Duplicate Detection: AI identifies and consolidates duplicate documents, giving property managers a single authoritative record

The panel noted that the barrier to AI adoption in real estate is lower than many operators assume. Modern platforms are designed for non-technical users and can be deployed without lengthy IT projects or data science teams.

Future-Proofing Strategies

The panel emphasized three practical strategies for residential real estate operators:

1. Consolidate data in accessible systems — Move away from fragmented storage toward a single source of truth for building documentation
2. Implement real estate-specific technology — Generic document management tools are not built for the compliance requirements of the built environment
3. Invest in smart building infrastructure — The buildings that will command premium rents and attract institutional capital in five years are the ones being digitized today

What This Means for Your Portfolio

The webinar’s core message was that adaptation is not optional. The operators who are consolidating their documentation, deploying AI tools, and building compliance-ready portfolios now will have a structural advantage as regulatory requirements tighten and tenant expectations rise.

The cost of inaction is not zero. Every month that a portfolio operates with fragmented documentation is a month of compliance risk, operational inefficiency, and missed opportunity to demonstrate the kind of asset quality that institutional investors and premium tenants demand.

Next Steps

Organizations can book a consultation to learn how technology can consolidate data, streamline compliance, and unlock AI capabilities for their portfolios.

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For deeper reading on the topics covered in this webinar: our Building Safety Act document readiness guide covers the compliance requirements Fredrik referenced, and The not-so-exciting part of PBSA that’s actually a game changer explores the documentation management strategies that separate leading PBSA operators from the rest. Learn why property managers choose Findable over manual processes and generic AI tools.