The Evidence Is In: Customer Experience Does Drive Commercial Real Estate Value - by Chenai Gondo
For years, those of us working in real estate customer experience have been saying the same thing:
“If you focus on the people in the building, the value will follow.”
We’ve said it in boardrooms, on panels, at conferences, in strategy decks. But we were sometimes met with polite nods… and a lingering sense that some people still saw “experience” as soft stuff. Something nice to talk about, but not something that actually drives rent rolls, yields, or cap rates.
Well, the data has finally caught up. And the academics have called it.
A Landmark Thesis with Hard Numbers
A newly published PhD thesis by Minyi Hu at Maastricht University, building on research done years earlier by Danielle Sanderson has put robust, empirical numbers to what many of us have intuitively known for years: tenant experience has a measurable, material impact on financial performance in real estate.
This isn’t theoretical. This is based on large-scale data from tenant & customer satisfaction surveys, footfall tracking, and transactional market data.
The study explores two major questions:
Does tenant & customer experience influence leasing and asset performance?
Do health and well-being features drive post-pandemic footfall and financial outcomes?
The answer to both: a clear, resounding yes.
🔍 What the Research Actually Shows
1. Tenant satisfaction predicts leasing behaviour and asset performance.
A one-point increase on a five-point satisfaction scale is associated with:
+8.6% higher renewal intention
+11.5% higher likelihood of recommendation
−23.1% lower probability of move-ou
And this isn’t just sentiment. These satisfaction gains translate into better building performance:
Higher rent growth (gross and effective) the following year
Lower vacancy rates, even after controlling for location, asset class, and building age. 👉 In other words, satisfaction is a leading indicator of financial outcomes. It gives you an early signal before issues show up on the rent roll.
2. Health and well-being are powerful experience levers.
Using cell-phone visitation data and comparing health-certified buildings (like those certified by International WELL Building Institute) with non-certified peers, the study finds:
Post-pandemic, health-certified offices saw ~11–12% more employee visits per 1,000 sq ft per month.
This uplift persists across different building types, locations, and visit durations.
Increased footfall precedes increased operating income by roughly two years, showing a lagged but real commercial effect. 👉 Health isn’t a “nice to have” — it literally pulls people back into buildings.
3. The market is already pricing health.
Health-certified buildings achieved:
3–7% higher achieved or listing rents
~11.5% higher sales prices
Cap rates lower by ~60 basis points on average.
WELL-certified buildings outperformed Fitwel-certified buildings, suggesting tenants and investors recognise and reward stronger health credentials. 👉 The premium isn’t just for the label - it’s tied to actual building performance (ventilation, air quality, light, comfort).
4. Retrofit, not just rebuild.
The study points out that many of the most valuable health interventions can be achieved through retrofits — improved ventilation, daylighting, filtration, or comfort upgrades.
Since health-certified stock is still a small portion of the market, early movers have a clear value advantage.
A note on scope: This research is based primarily on U.S. commercial office market data — including tenant satisfaction surveys from Kingsley Associates / Grace Hill, health certification records from International WELL Building Institute and Fitwel Certification System, mobile footfall data from Habidatum, and performance data from CoStar Group and NCREIF. The numbers themselves are U.S.-specific, but the mechanisms they reveal — tenant satisfaction predicting renewals and rent growth, and health-led design attracting people and pricing power — are structurally relevant in global office markets, including the UK and Europe.
Why This Matters Right Now
The real estate industry is in a transition moment.
Occupiers have more choice than ever. Hybrid work has forced owners to rethink what value actually looks like. Tenants aren’t just choosing space — they’re choosing how it feels to be in that space.
Experience isn’t a “perk.” It’s a demand driver.
This research also makes another powerful point: experience is a leading indicator. Before your rent roll reflects a problem, before your yields compress, before a void hits your P&L… there are usually signals in your tenant experience data.
That’s gold. If you know where to look, you can see performance coming — and act before it hits the balance sheet.
Health: The Sharp Edge of Experience
One of the clearest examples in this study is health.
During the post-COVID recovery, buildings with formal health certifications saw significantly higher employee visits. In plain language: people showed up to work there.
And where people go, value follows. Rent premiums. Stronger occupancy. Sharper cap rates.
Why? Because tenants and investors are starting to recognise what customers have felt all along — spaces that support well-being perform better.
From “Soft Stuff” to Strategic Advantage
Let’s be honest: customer experience has spent years sitting at the margins of asset strategy. Something to be “considered,” often at the tail end of design or operations.
That era needs to end.
If experience affects renewal, rent, value, and yield, then it belongs at the core of strategy. It should be planned, measured, and resourced like any other critical driver of asset performance.
This is exactly what we’ve built at RealService: a practice grounded in the belief that better experiences drive better outcomes.
We’ve seen it in the data. We’ve lived it in the field. And now, academia has given us the receipts.
What Owners and Investors Should Do Next
If you’re an owner, developer, or investor: If you’re not treating customer experience as a core part of your commercial strategy, you’re probably leaving value on the table.
Here’s where to start:
Measure experience systematically. Track tenant satisfaction and engagement like you track rent collection.
Treat health and well-being as performance levers. These aren’t luxuries. They’re differentiators that pay off.
Invest early. The thesis shows behavioural change (like footfall) comes first, and revenue follows later. Timing matters.
Retrofit, don’t just rebuild. Many experience improvements can be achieved through operational changes and smart upgrades.
Final Thought
I’ve spent my career helping organisations put people at the centre of their buildings. This research confirms what we’ve always believed: Customer experience isn’t the soft stuff. It’s the smart stuff. Experience isn’t an afterthought. It’s a financial strategy.
The question isn’t whether experience adds value anymore. The question is: who’s going to act on it first?
This article draws on research by Minyi Hu, “Real estate revisited: how people shape the future of workspace” (2025), Maastricht University.
This Is Exactly What We Do at RealService
This research confirms what we’ve always believed — and what we’ve been delivering in practice for over 25 years.
At RealService , we’ve been at the forefront of customer experience in real estate long before it became a buzzword. Our independent consultancy has:
Conducted over 60,000 stakeholder conversations, giving us one of the most robust CX benchmarks in the industry.
Helped real estate leaders translate deep human insight into actionable change that drives performance.
Built programs that turn experience into commercial advantage.
And we don’t just collect insight — we bring it to life. Today, our work includes destination activation and placemaking, delivering the on-the-ground experience improvements that shape how people feel about places and spaces.
For us, customer experience isn’t theory. It’s our daily practice. And this research only strengthens the case for what we’ve known all along: when you invest in customer experience, performance follows.
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