Techtalk Radio

On this episode of Tech Talk radio, host Emily Wright is joined by Aviva Investors' head of responsible investment Ed Dixon as reveals the simple mantra the real estate sector needs when it comes to demystifying ESG - and it's not acronyms.  A former carpenter who lost his job in the 2008 recession, Dixon talks about his career path from "fifty quid weekend jobs" to "£50bn of real assets 20 years later" and discusses why "it's OK" that head of sustainability and director roles in large real estate companies are increasingly being taken up by younger, less experienced people. "Young people are taking on incrementally bigger and bigger roles in this space. They are taking risks, they are getting the leadership team on board and they are delivering great stuff. I think it's working." Dixon also touches on the transition from investing in climate solutions such as green buildings to tackling climate in its entirety and why finding the "bright spots" in the sector and ignoring those with their heads down resisting

On this week's episode of Tech Talk Radio, host Emily Wright speaks to someone not known to mince his words. Ility founder and chief executive Marcus Moufarrige pulls no punches when it comes to his thoughts on the future of tenant engagement apps as his platform is rolled out across portfolios within major real estate companies including L&G and Deloitte.  "I have always said that tenant engagement isn't an app, it's an outcome," said Moufarrige. "If it isn't an app, why do we need them?" Moufarrige added that getting people to engage with a building via an app has traditionally been a tough sell with low uptake and something that usually requires "a lot of pushing" because "no one gets turned on by engaging with a building." He said that New York-based Ility's strategy comes at the problem more from an asset management approach, giving the landlords the tools they need to collect and own their own data while creating flexible, profitable spaces with a focus on ESG.  To hear more about Ility, Moufarr

Michael Beckerman's efforts to inspire the real estate sector to tackle climate change are not always met with positive feedback. The chief executive and founder of CREtech, which runs real estate tech conferences across the globe, says that the move towards real estate addressing ESG is clearer to see in Europe. But in the US there is a long way to go. "I get a tremendous amount of hate mail," he adds. It's venomous. There are the climate deniers - and these are often people from within the real estate sector. Then there are the people who ask 'why should I be paying for this?' It is really, really hard." That is why, he says, CREtech is set on travelling outside of the States to cities like London and Copenhagen to discuss these issues and bring together the key players required to make significant in-roads in addressing some of the industry's thorniest ESG-related problems.   The hope is that the resulting intel will help to move the US market forward at a more rapid pace. Because, he adds, the time is now

Redefining real estate as a product rather than as asset could be the trick to tackling complex and overwhelming ESG targets, says the founder of one of Europe’s most active sustainable urbanism funds. Speaking on an episode of Tech Talk Radio, Mikkel Bulow-Lehnsby, co-founder of Copenhagen-based fund 2150 said that property companies have been lulled into "short-term shareholder timeframes" and that 2150 has been set up to help the industry reframe the urban environment. "We should try not to see real estate as an asset, but as a product," he said on this episode of Tech Talk Radio. "We need to focus on how we make that product more sustainable, customer-centric and efficient." Bulow-Lehnsby, who also co-founded European real estate investor NREP, added that anyone who is still part of the climate change problem within 10 years "won't have a business." He was joined on the podcast by former Sidewalk Labs head of sustainability Nicole LeBlanc who is now platform partner at 2150. She said that with so much tim

On this episode of Tech Talk Radio, head of content Emily Wright is joined by Cluttons head of research Sophy Moffat to explore the implications of a gradual "watering down" of connectivity targets at government level.  Following the release of the much anticipated Levelling Up white paper earlier this month, it has been noted that while connectivity and technology underpin much of the social advancements outlined within it, there is little focus on improvements to the technology itself.  In fact, says Moffat, the opposite is arguably true. "In the 2019 election manifesto from the Johnson government we had a pledge of 100% Gigabit connectivity to all UK premises by 2025," she says. "Later, in the November 2020 spending review we were told 80-85% of premises covered by 2025. Now, in the Levelling Up white paper, the most recent iteration of targets, we were told we would have nationwide access to Gigabit connectivity by 2030 and that the majority of the population will have 5G access by then. That’s added fi

On this episode of Tech Talk Radio, EG head of content Emily Wright speaks to Insurami chief executive and founder Majed Chaaraoui and head of partnerships Jack Sibley.  Launched in 2019, Insurami effectively operates as a large-scale Deposit Guarantee platform for commercial real estate and is currently used by companies including The Howard De Walden Estate, Level39 and Huckletree.  Rather than forking out a hefty deposit in one go, tenants pay a monthly fee to the platform for a Deposit Guarantee. This then pays out to the landlord – up to the maximum cover value of £600,000 – if there is a default on the lease. Off the back of last month's announcement that Fasanara Capital has joined existing investors including Global Founders Capital, Entrepreneur First and Clocktower Ventures in a £42m raise to facilitate Insurami’s expansion, the duo reveal what those growth plans will entail.  They also explain why they believe their tech solution will release billions of pounds worth of otherwise illiquid funds

Hybrid working looks to be here to stay. That not only means that offices need to work harder than ever before to lure tenants back but a wide range of other asset classes must up their connectivity game.   On this episode of Tech Talk Radio, EG head of content Emily Wright is joined by Wiredscore president William Newton and Watkins Jones head of divestment and asset management George Dyer to discuss just that.  Wiredscore research has revealed that over half of Europeans consider their internet to be better at home than in the workplace. As the world gears up to embrace hybrid working, it is clear there is more to be done to ensure that connectivity is supporting hybrid working across a number of asset classes including offices, BTR and purpose-built student accommodation.  "The key thing now for us as developers is to design places where people want to live and a critical part of that now is also where people want to work," said BTR and student accommodation developer Watkins Jones' Dyer. "For us, conne

JLL's launch of JLL Short Stays in partnership with Lavanda last month is set to plug a gap in the market with a platform "to rival Airbnb".  JLL director Sam Winnard and Lavanda's chief executive Frederik Lerche-Lerchenborg joined EG's Emily Wright on the latest episode of Tech Talk Radio to reveal the thinking behind the launch and why they believe the residential sector needs to be better when it comes to embracing flexibility.  The new booking platform has been launched to offer business and leisure travellers professionally managed and fully flexible short-term rental accommodation in the UK. "We realised there is a huge amount of demand for medium term,  quality inventory," said Lerche-Lerchenborg. "People are relocating. People are in between long-term tenancies and the relationship with the office is changing. People are increasingly looking to book 3-month or 6-month stays, especially around the UK. But finding that high quality inventory is very difficult. "We realised that we have a whole load

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” So said Leonardo da Vinci, a man who knew a few things about problem solving. As the application of technology and digital innovation to solve problems within the real estate sector continues to dominate strategies across the board, the power of simplicity comes into increasingly sharp focus. Of the many efficiencies offered by real estate tech, using digital technologies to expedite long-standing processes remains one of the most business critical. And while the rationale behind this strategy is simple, actually implementing the right tools for the job remains a challenge. Fitting then, that this should be the discussion point for our latest episode of Tech Talk Radio. EG Head of Content Emily Wright was joined by Teresa Lee, vice president of Roundhill Ventures, managing director of Search Acumen Andrew Lloyd and Marcus Moufarriage, founder and chief executive of Ility to talk about how even the simplest ideas need careful execution. “It is pretty well known t

In this 30-minute episode of the EG Property Podcast, EG editor Samantha McClary sits down with tech leader and investor and founder of SuperPitch, Joyeeta Das, and Ayesha Ofori, founder of PropElle, investor and Goldman Sachs alumna, to talk about investing, entrepreneurialism and diversity. Women, particularly women of colour, are massively under-funded as founders, they are often disregarded, not because of their business plans – which as you’ll hear from Das in this conversation, are often more considered and considerate, but because they are female. Often it is not on purpose, often it is not conscious, but often it is the case. But instead of just talking about the issue, Das and her crew of supporters are doing something about it. SuperPitch is a global cross industry initiative to eliminate the biased access to capital for under-represented founders, particularly women. The founders have committed to driving investment of $5bn in under-represented founders by 2026 by partnering with investors, ment

In this episode of EG’s TechTalk radio, EG editor Samantha McClary is talking with Mike Gordon, the relatively newly installed chief executive of Altus Group. The 31-minute discussion takes a look into the firm’s recent acquisition of Finance Active and how tech and data is enabling real estate to better manage debt. Gordon also shares his aspirations for the company and his views on the spate of SPACS being launched with a focus on real estate tech and data-enabled businesses.

In this episode of EG's TechTalk Radio Samantha McClary is talking with Fifth Wall founder Brendan Wallace about the growth of the business from a single $200m fund to a $1.7bn business with more than 70 LPs around the globe. In this hour-long interview the pair discuss the growth of proptech, the responsibility of the real estate sector to do more than just buy PV in the fight against climate change and how the sector is on the cusp of its biggest and most powerful transformation. To read this interview make sure to pick up a copy of the 1 May EG Magazine or subscribe to Radius Data Exchange for online access to all of our news, data and EG Interviews.

In this episode of EG’s TechTalk Radio podcast host EG editor Samantha McClary is in discussion with William Newton, president and EMEA MD of Wiredscore, and Sally Jones, head of strategy, digital and technology at British Land to talk about being smart in real estate. Wiredscore has just launched SmartScore, a new certification that it has developed in response to increasing demand for guidance around what smart really means in relation to commercial buildings, and how it can and should be implemented. Confusion about what really constitutes a smart building is rife in real estate and WiredScore hopes that its new certification, developed in collaboration with the industry, will provide “credibility and certainty to an industry rapidly pursuing digital transformation”. British Land is one of 44 property owners that have signed up to the certification and is delivering smart solutions across its estate. Listen in to find out why smart matters and how it is not always just about the tech.

In this episode of EG’s TechTalk Radio EG editor Samantha McClary talks to Olly Freedman from ReTransform, MRI Software’s Richard Belgrave and Angelica Donati, chief executive of Donati S.p.a & Donati Immobiliare Group about AI and machine learning in real estate. Over the course of the 35-minute discussion they discuss everything from what AI and machine learning actually is in a real estate context, how attitudes to its use have changed, how it is being used in more areas that we may have realised and the potential it has to really drive the industry forward. They also discussion the investment landscape for tech and investigate fresh topics for conversation around skills and education. For more on the role of tech in real estate, make sure to bookmark EG's dedicated real estate tech news page at https://www.egi.co.uk/halo/

In this special edition of the EG TechTalk Radio podcast, EG editor Samantha McClary is in conversation with a collection of judges for EG’s upcoming Tech Awards to find out a little bit more about what they will be looking for in submissions this year and just how excited they are for the virtual extravaganza that will be the EG Tech Awards. But the conversation is about more than just how to win an EG Tech Award, it is about the role that tech is playing in the evolution of the real estate sector, about how despite the pandemic, 2020 was a year of innovation and big steps forward. Listen in to find out more about that, exactly how Olly Freedman, director- Europe at Retransform, Tim Ryan, partner and head of technology at DAC Beachcroft, and Colin O’Reilly, sales director at MRI Software, are going to dress to impress at this year’s awards and an exclusive piece of breaking tech news. To find out more about the EG Tech Awards and how to enter, visit https://www.egi.co.uk/tech-awards/2021-home/

In this episode of EG’s TechTalk Radio, EG editor Samantha McClary sits down with founder of Appear Here Ross Bailey and its lead data scientist Alex Nussbacher to talk about data driven decisions and how the industry needs to embrace tech to build a new future, particularly for retail. Leaning on learnings from Appear Here’s recently published report, How Landlords Can Help Save the Street, Bailey and Nussbacher explain how embracing technology and data, being flexible and listening are some of the greatest tools of survival. While a tale of retail’s demise is easy to tell, particularly in these Covid times, the Appear Here team are adamant that Covid will not define this decade. And that how we rest and rebuild will. Listen in to hear more about how to use tech as a tool to deliver on bigger goals, how being the best doesn’t mean you always get it right first time, and how the 2020s should be about technology democratising rather than technology dictating.

On this week's Tech Talk Radio, EG tech and global reporter Lucy Alderson dishes out some good news to lighten up a challenging year. Hundreds of dollars are being raised globally for real estate technology as part of a growing trend in launching "blank cheque companies". Tishman Speyer and CBRE are part of the movement. She also sits down virtually with Professor Dr Andrew Baum from Said Business School, and PiLabs research associate Andy Saull who have co-authored a report on how technology is transforming real estate and its role in the industry.  Saull and Baum explain how the report provides a "road map" for digitisation and tech adoption that real estate companies can use, and how companies can avoid becoming a “clear casualty of the digital transformation about to take place”.

On this week's episode of Tech Talk Radio, EG tech and global reporter Lucy Alderson sits down with London South Bank University Business School professor of organisational behaviour Karin Moser to talk all about how remote working and our intense use of technology to keep businesses running is impacting our mental health. Moser led the research, in which 102 UK employees were surveyed on their working from home practices during the first lockdown. The research concluded that remote working could “harm employee wellbeing at work, if left unregulated”, with employees experiencing tiredness or “Zoom fatigue”. So if working from home remotely has taken its toll on our mental health, what does this mean for the future of the office? The two sit down to discuss the role of the workplace post-Covid and how employers can put in place steps to avoid video call fatigue.  

Who's feeling festive during lockdown? EG tech and global reporter Lucy Alderson asks all the burning questions in this week's Tech Talk Radio. Keeping on the subject of lockdown, Alderson also flags EG's 2020 mental health survey analysis (which will be featured in this week's magazine) which looks at how Covid has impacted real estate professionals this year, and what lessons we can learn from a tough year for all. Alderson is then joined by data room provider Drooms chief executive Alexandre Grellier to talk about research the company has conducted into the pace of digitisation in real estate over this year, and how Covid has impacted this. Drooms surveyed 538 real estate investors across Europe, and *spoiler alert* the survey results show that the pace of digitisation is still sluggish. The two dig deeper into the stats to understand why that is.

As part of a Tech Talk Radio podcast with Cluttons, EG’s tech editor Emily Wright is joined by Cluttons head of research Sophy Moffat and CBI senior policy adviser Susannah Odell to delve into some of the key issues at the heart of this debate.