1. What is the next major innovation or development in the real estate sector that you are most looking forward to?
More than a unique technological innovation, I believe the real breakthrough is already underway: it is the change in the use of buildings.
For a long time, real estate was conceived as a juxtaposition of surfaces. Today, we
increasingly think in terms of experiences, life paths, and flexibility.
What particularly interests me are hybrid models: co-living, micro-hotels,
managed residences, buildings capable of evolving over time without being rebuilt. This is
exactly what we experimented with at Colocation City, then in our
office-to-residential conversion projects, and now in the hospitality sector.
In my view, innovation is not so much about the “smart” building as it is about the adaptable building,
capable of remaining relevant for 20 or 30 years despite the evolution of lifestyles.
2. What did the younger members of the team prompt you to rethink?
I think it’s the way of working and deciding. When I started the real estate company in 2012, the
model was very top-down: decisions were made quickly, they were executed, and performance was measured mainly
in financial returns.
Our younger employees have pushed us to integrate more transparency, meaning, and
collaboration into our processes. They more naturally question the impact of projects and the
overall coherence of the strategy, and not just the IRR of a transaction.
3. Which part of your business do you think AI will have the most difficulty replacing?
AI will clearly transform our profession, particularly in analysis, financial modeling, and
data management.
On the other hand, I am convinced that it will have great difficulty replacing human judgment in
the complex and imperfect situations that are the daily reality of real estate.
Negotiating an acquisition, gauging a seller’s personality, understanding a territory, arbitrating between several
scenarios in an uncertain political, regulatory, or human context… all of this relies on
experience, intuition, and responsibility. Not to mention building and
developing a business network.
AI will be an excellent decision-making tool, but the final decision will remain deeply human.
4. What belief about our market did you have five years ago that you no longer share today?
Five years ago, I thought standardization was the key to performance: reproduce a model,
industrialize, scale quickly.
Experience has shown me that, in real estate, this approach has its limits. Each building,
each neighborhood, each use has its own specific characteristics.
Today, I believe much more in a strategy made up of clear frameworks but tailor-made responses
, capable of adapting to local realities and market developments.
This is what led us to broaden our spectrum, from coliving to micro-hotels, while remaining
true to our DNA: creating value from existing assets, anticipating new uses
rather than being subjected to them.
