In an increasingly complex and demanding real estate landscape, institutional property owners face a central challenge: managing large and diverse property portfolios efficiently — without limiting the operational autonomy of local property managers.
Between strict governance requirements, financial performance goals, service quality, and ESG responsibilities, institutional owners must reconcile a wide range of — at times conflicting — demands. All this in an environment of growing regulatory and societal expectations.
Fragmented Property Management – A Breeding Ground for Silos and Inconsistencies
When a portfolio is managed by multiple local property managers, often across cantonal or regional boundaries, a number of risks emerge:
- Isolated data silos
- Inconsistent processes
- Lack of transparency in decisions and actions
- Difficulty in benchmarking partner performance
This fragmentation not only limits portfolio-wide visibility, but also reduces steering and decision-making capabilities. Decisions are often made on the basis of incomplete or inconsistent data. It becomes difficult to assess service quality for tenants, ensure compliance with deadlines, or measure ESG progress.
Clear Yet Flexible Governance
Institutional owners do not aim to micromanage property managers. Rather, the goal is to create a clear and fair governance framework that defines roles, responsibilities, and expectations — without overcomplicating processes.
This includes the ability to:
- Define uniform management guidelines
- Monitor compliance without imposing rigid controls
- Identify and support high-performing property managers while highlighting areas for improvement
In short: Set boundaries without restricting autonomy, and view collaboration with property managers as a lever for quality and efficiency — not an obstacle.
Data as the Foundation for Informed Decisions
Reliable, comparable, and accessible data is a critical factor for portfolio steering today.
Institutional owners need transparency into:
- Response times for reported issues
- Contractor performance
- Comparable KPIs across property managers
- Consolidated budget performance
With the right tools, this data forms the basis of a decision-ready dashboard that makes the performance of the entire portfolio measurable and manageable.
Translating ESG Commitments into Action
In the ESG space, owners are increasingly expected to structure their operations in a transparent, responsible, and accountable manner:
- Environmentally, through consumption monitoring, sustainable maintenance, and responsible contractor selection
- Socially, through fair and high-quality tenant services
- Governance-wise, through transparent, compliant property management processes
But without a strong data foundation and standardized workflows, many of these ESG goals remain theoretical.
Digital Platforms: Navigating the Tension Between Control and Autonomy
Digital platforms are increasingly viewed as a means to strengthen the steering capabilities of institutional property owners, even in decentralized management environments. The objective is not full control, but rather more transparency, comparability, and consistency across processes — while maintaining local operational responsibility.
Platforms like Tayo offer centralized data structures, standardized communication flows, and clearly defined workflows that form the basis for systematic performance evaluation and ESG-compliant governance.
In practice, the success of these solutions strongly depends on the buy-in from property managers, the quality of the data, and the integration into existing systems.
Ultimately, the key success factor is the ability to balance standardization and flexibility — particularly in heterogeneous portfolios with varying management models.
