Interview with Anamaria Cretu, Leasing and Asset Manager, Skanska's Commercial Development Business Unit in CEE

We have partnered with Skanska's Commercial Development Business Unit in 2020. They were our first clients and we are grateful for their continuous support and for our strong partnership. For the Equilibrium project, we implemented a digital platform to streamline the leasing processes, enabling future tenants to discover the spaces, amenities, and tech specs virtually, while offering an advanced management dashboard to the Skanska leasing team.

Skanska is one of the companies that have innovation and agile technology adoption at their core, so we wanted to learn more about their take on Proptech, the Metaverse, and future office trends.

We are honored to have discussed with Anamaria Cretu, Leasing and Asset Manager, Skanska's Commercial Development Business Unit in CEE. Hope you will enjoy this insightful interview with her!

What motivates you to adopt new technologies? What are the benefits and opportunities you see?

The shift towards digitalization and the adoption of new technologies is at an unprecedented, lightning-fast pace. In building for a better society, innovation and smart tech solutions support our future-proof approach, so we are constantly open to adopting new technologies that contribute to enhancing the experience, product, and services we offer.

At Skanska, we are in a constant search for improvements to support the sustainable approach that guides our business. One of our main drivers is the customer-orientation outlook. With the well-being of the tenants always in mind, our aim is to create sustainable products that show care for people, society, and our planet.

The opportunities and benefits are especially very close related to the ESG area. The adoption of new technologies in the real estate sector has great potential to help society and other industries manage the transition to a sustainable economy, to improve the transparency of value chains, streamline the businesses, and help them bring added value to the customers and end-users.

How do you see the Proptech industry evolve? What does it need to grow?

Property technology is now one of the biggest trends on the market, with high growth potential in the future and numerous startups leveraging the technology to address all sorts of different challenges.

Virtual selling and viewing of houses and properties online are one of the main proptech features that would enhance client experience while looking for properties to buy, as it eliminates the time and expenses associated with viewing multiple properties offline. Solutions that enable prospective buyers to take a virtual tour of properties or customize the space according to their own preferences will be more and more important.

On the same page, talking about office buildings, VR tours and showcase solutions for unfinished projects allow companies to better understand client expectations during the property development phase and bring improvements in the future. Along with completing and signing real-estate agreements digitally, these should be the main focus areas in the proptech space.

Due to the market dynamics but also to the popularity and efficiency of digital solutions, real estate and tech will become even more closely intertwined. 2022 will be the year that steps the game up, leading to centrally controlled systems that bring about cost efficiencies and ESG benefits.

What is your take on the metaverse? Is real estate ready for such a transformation? Do we need it? Does it present risks/opportunities?

Even though the metaverse is currently rather in an experimental stage, it might represent a bright development in the long term, especially given that technology and high-tech solutions are becoming more and more part of our everyday and business lives. Smart digital solutions are now transitioning from ?nice to have” to ?must-have”, which will most probably be the case for the metaverse, too, in the upcoming future.

With the infrastructure currently being built, it may take several years for the metaverse to become mainstream. But before making its way into the mainstream, it will need to overcome a range of hurdles, from regulations, o computing power and data privacy issues. A dynamic industry like real estate will surely be ready to embrace such a transformation and extend to the virtual world, but only after this field will stabilize.

Although the metaverse is expected to grow tremendously in the next few years, it is still a relatively new industry that is far from stable. Being relatively new, investing in the metaverse might entail big risks, but with an equally big potential for high returns.

What are the next trends to watch in office real estate?

Although the pandemic effects are still palpable, the office market has rebounded, fueled by rising confidence and a gradual return to the office, largely in hybrid capacities. It’s clear that, while the role of offices may change, they will remain just as important for people and for the economy.

We expect rental growth and relatively high demand to drive a market-wide expansion in the next period of time. Current projections point to ongoing growth, creating even more opportunities for investors.

The ESG transition from trend to important criteria for real estate investors is another trend that will mark the change and reformation of the way we relate to spaces, companies, or employers. Competitive investors have increasingly prioritized ESG, or environmental, social, and governance-related considerations, and will base their investment decision on these principles, with a particular emphasis on environmental factors.

The shift towards mix-use projects, that include office, retail and residential properties is another trend that's good to stay. A well-designed mixed-use project is one that doesn’t work in isolation but rather responds specifically to its local context. By understanding the environment around it, such developments stimulate the local economy and enrich the community.

Finally, what are your plans for the rest of this year?

This year, we are advancing with the works within the Equilibrium 2 project, which we estimate will be completed in the first quarter of 2023. The 12-story building will consist of a leasable area of approximately 19,900 square meters and 229 above and underground parking spaces. Upon completion, the entire complex consisting of two buildings will provide a leasable area of 40,800 square meters.

Recently, the Equilibrium 2 project obtained the Zero Net Carbon Buildings pre-certification, developed by Skanska in partnership with ROGBC, being the first office building in Romania to receive preliminary certification, an extra step towards achieving our overall group objective of achieving CO2 neutrality by 2045.?At the moment, we have managed to reduce the carbon footprint of our own operations by around 45%, getting considerably closer to the target set for 2030 to reduce our carbon emissions by 70%.?Thus, we also want to continue to highlight our competencies in the development of green, sustainable projects and to promote the same type of transparency-based action in relation to all our partners, as before.

In addition, both in 2022 and 2023, we continue to analyze the market to identify new opportunities and continue to develop our business at a sustainable pace and in a sustainable way.

Explore the Equilibrium project virtually on its dedicated web platform.