Real estate management in 2026: The manager as risk manager

One of the best things about studying for me is connecting with alumni of the MRE program at the Amsterdam School of Real Estate. In January, we had a reunion with the class of 1999-2001. It was a great opportunity to catch up and update each other on the latest developments, including real estate management, this month's theme in Vastgoedjournaal. Regulations are becoming stricter and more effectively enforced, costs and capacity are under pressure, and data requests from asset management, financiers, and tenants are becoming a regular occurrence. In this column, Geert Janssen of MAES Notarissen distills six key points that will set the agenda in asset management this year.

Firstly, rent regulation in the mid-market segment is no longer a one-time implementation, but an operational process that must be continuously monitored. Property managers are held accountable for WWS consistency, correct contract formation, transparent indexation, and the ability to substantiate rents in response to questions from tenants, supervisors, or municipalities. This requires maintaining records for each property and a well-designed management system: not only the current rent, but also the substantiation, changes, property characteristics, and historical choices must be readily reproducible.

Secondly, compliance is shifting from a legal issue to a service and reputation issue. Good landlord practices, complaints procedures, information requirements, and local licensing regimes ensure that the front office, accounts receivable management, and technical management must work in unison. For institutional investors, this means managing not only vacancy and debt collection, but also demonstrably sound processes: response times, handling of defects, communication about service charges, and clear escalation paths. In retail and office buildings, discussions about service charges and pass-through are more likely to become legal if transparency or measurement methodology are inadequate. What used to be management practice is now governance.

Capex under pressure

Thirdly, maintenance remains expensive and difficult to plan, partly due to a shortage of skilled workers and higher implementation costs. This translates into longer lead times, less competition in tenders, and increased price risks for faulty work. The impact is not only on the bill, but primarily on predictability. Institutional portfolios require cash flow certainty; therefore, the maintenance regime will be increasingly risk-driven in 2026: stricter definitions of performance contracts, higher requirements for first-time fixes, and greater emphasis on data from notifications, inspections, and installation monitoring to recalibrate the multi-year maintenance plan. A manager who can explain why one complex is being advanced and another is not, delivers immediate value.

Fourthly, sustainability is definitively an asset-determining factor. For offices, minimum energy performance remains a strict prerequisite for rentability, but the real change is that sustainability is no longer separate from daily management. Energy data, indoor climate, installation status, and user behavior increasingly determine whether measures are actually profitable. In retail, you see tenants expecting more comfort and lower energy costs, while the split incentive (who pays versus who benefits) remains a challenge. As a result, the real estate manager is more often involved in decisions that used to be the responsibility of asset management: what capex is needed to prevent stranded risk, what scope is realistic per property, and how to incorporate this into service charges, leases, and planning with minimal disruption.

Data as an asset

Fifth, ESG reporting is increasingly becoming a supply chain issue. Even if a portfolio isn't directly subject to reporting in every entity, investors, banks, and tenants still demand comparable data points: energy, CO2, material flows, risks, social indicators, and governance. This is only possible if property management has its source data in order and definitions are consistent. The benefits lie in standardization: a single measurement and calculation methodology, clear data accountability, and assurance-ready documentation. Properly implementing this reduces friction in financing and valuation and prevents last-minute data panic at the end of the financial year.

Sixth, technology accelerates the profession, but also exposes it. AI and automation are taking over repetitive tasks (contract extraction, triage of reports, debt collection notifications), shifting the added value to orchestration, interpretation, and stakeholder management. At the same time, reliance on digital systems is growing: building management, access control, smart meters, and supplier portals. This makes cyber risk and data quality part of your management baseline. By 2026, clients will expect not only efficient processes but also the ability to demonstrate who has access to which systems, how incidents are handled, and how suppliers within the supply chain are managed.