Five years ago, numbers were “nice to have,” recalls Indraneel Karlekar, the global head of research and strategy at Principal Real Estate. Now they are a “must have,” embedded in every one of the investment processes at Principal. An in-house data analytics team and science researchers scour through reams of big data.

It’s been a similar metamorphosis at Pro-invest Group. In 2017, a corporate team of about a dozen people used to oversee a relatively simple portfolio of eight hotels in two funds using a standard asset management approach. The company in 2022 has more than 50 sector-specific specialists spread among London, Vienna, Sydney and Dubai, managing close to 15 properties in three funds, not to mention a further nine assets across managed accounts, co-investments and a joint venture.

That wouldn’t be possible without the many streams of data that inform every decision. Rapid growth has come with a rapid process of sophistication, all grounded in imp