Every commercial building has an energy label. You can see at a glance how efficient it is, what insulation it has, and what you can expect in terms of energy costs. But here is something genuinely surprising: there is still no widely adopted standard for the digital quality of commercial real estate. No label, no classification, no benchmark. And that is remarkable, because businesses today are entirely dependent on internet, cloud applications, AI tools, and digital infrastructure — often from day one of occupancy.
What Is an IT Label?
An IT Label is, in essence, the digital equivalent of an energy label. Where an energy label tells you how much energy a building consumes, an IT Label tells you how digitally equipped a building actually is. It provides structured insight into the aspects of a building that determine whether a business can operate effectively from the moment it moves in.
Specifically, an IT Label covers:
- Internet connectivity — what speeds and redundancy are available
- Fibre optic access — whether the building is directly connected to a fibre network
- Internal cabling — the quality and coverage of structured cabling throughout the space
- WiFi infrastructure — whether access points are pre-installed and where
- Patch cabinets and server rooms — whether technical spaces are present and suitable
- Smart Building technology — building management systems, IoT sensors, automated controls
- Overall digital readiness — how prepared the building is for modern business operations
Crucially, an IT Label does not pass judgement. It does not say a building is good or bad. It simply creates transparency — something the commercial property market has been missing on the digital side for far too long. You can read more about how smart building technology intersects with future-proof real estate in our article on smart building systems explained.
Why Does Commercial Real Estate Need an IT Label?
Open any commercial property listing and you will typically find detailed information about:
- Energy label (A, B, C…)
- Floor area in square metres
- Number of parking spaces
- Architectural character and building quality
- Pantry, reception, and communal facilities
- Community and coworking amenities
What you almost never find is any mention of:
- Available internet capacity
- Whether fibre is present or on a waiting list
- The state of internal cabling
- WiFi coverage
- Server room or patch cabinet availability
- Digital infrastructure in any meaningful sense
Twenty years ago, electricity was the primary utility a business needed before it could function. Today, internet access and digital infrastructure are at least equally fundamental — in many sectors, they are more critical. A recruitment firm, a fintech company, a logistics operator running real-time systems — none of them can function without reliable, high-capacity digital infrastructure. Yet this information is routinely absent from property marketing, lease documentation, and due diligence processes.
This gap matters. And the IT Label concept exists specifically to close it. If the broader question of how digital readiness is reshaping property decisions interests you, our piece on IT infrastructure as the new scarcity factor in commercial real estate goes deeper on the subject.
A Practical Example: The Turn-Key Office That Wasn't Ready
Consider a scenario that is more common than most tenants would expect. A business finds a turn-key office that looks ideal. The fit-out is modern, the location is excellent, the lease terms are acceptable. Contracts are signed.
Then the move-in process begins. And things start to unravel:
- The cabling in the walls is outdated and insufficient for the number of workstations planned
- WiFi access points exist in the open areas but not in the meeting rooms or back offices
- The available internet connection cannot handle the bandwidth the team requires
- There is no patch cabinet — the company needs to install one from scratch
- A fibre upgrade for the building is possible, but the waiting time is twelve to sixteen weeks
The result: extra costs that were not in the budget, a delayed start, frustrated staff, and an IT project that nobody had planned for. The office looked ready. Digitally, it was not.
An IT Label would have made every one of these factors visible before the lease was signed. The tenant could have negotiated differently, set aside a budget, or chosen a different property. That is the practical value of digital transparency in renting office space.
What an IT Label Means for Tenants
For anyone looking to rent office space or business space, an IT Label answers a question that is currently almost impossible to answer from a standard listing: can we actually operate here from day one?
The key benefits for tenants
- Know what you are renting. Digital infrastructure becomes as visible as square metres and parking spaces.
- Operational from day one. Businesses with IT1 or IT2-rated spaces can typically connect and work immediately without additional investment.
- No unexpected costs. Surprises around cabling, WiFi, or connectivity can be budgeted or negotiated before signing.
- Informed decision-making. You can compare two otherwise similar properties on their digital readiness, not just on rent and location.
- Better conversations with landlords. A shared framework makes it easier to ask the right questions and get useful answers.
Whether you are searching for office space for rent in Amsterdam or exploring options in other cities, the digital quality of a building is something worth investigating systematically — not just hoping it will be fine once you move in.
What an IT Label Means for Landlords
For property owners and managers, an IT Label is not a burden — it is a positioning tool. In a market where tenants are increasingly sophisticated about their requirements, being able to demonstrate digital readiness creates tangible advantages.
The key benefits for landlords
- Transparent communication. Prospects arrive informed, which reduces time wasted on viewings that were never going to convert.
- Competitive differentiation. A building with a clear IT classification stands out in a crowded market where most listings say nothing about digital infrastructure.
- Expectation management. When tenants know exactly what the building offers digitally, post-signing disputes about infrastructure become far less common.
- Future-proof positioning. As digital demands increase, properties with documented and high digital readiness will become more desirable — and more valuable.
- Attracts the right tenants. A well-classified property attracts occupiers whose needs match what the building can deliver, leading to better tenant retention.
Property managers and asset managers in particular will recognise the operational value here. When tenant expectations are aligned with reality from the outset, the relationship runs more smoothly throughout the lease term.
The IT Label Classifications Explained
The IT Label framework uses six classifications, from fully digital-ready to completely bare. Here is what each level means in plain terms:
- IT1+ — Fully digitally equipped. High-speed fibre, redundant connections, enterprise-grade WiFi, complete structured cabling, smart building systems fully integrated. Ready for the most demanding digital operations.
- IT1 — High-quality digital infrastructure. Fibre connected, strong internal cabling, professional WiFi coverage, suitable for corporate and multi-user environments.
- IT2 — Plug & Play. Internet connection available, basic cabling in place, WiFi installed. A business can connect and operate with minimal additional work.
- IT3 — Basic provisions present. An internet connection exists and some cabling is in place, but the setup may need supplementing depending on the tenant's needs.
- IT4 — Connection point only. A single internet connection point is present, but little else. Significant investment in internal digital infrastructure will be required.
- IT5 — Shell without IT provisions. The building is a blank canvas digitally. Everything from cabling to connectivity must be arranged entirely by the tenant or installed from scratch.
It is important to be clear: no classification is inherently better or worse than another. A large multinational may deliberately choose an IT4 or IT5 property because they want to install entirely bespoke infrastructure tailored to their specific security requirements. An SME looking for a turn-key solution will almost certainly prefer IT1 or IT2. The label creates a common language — it does not prescribe what tenants should want. This connects naturally to the broader topic of delivery levels in commercial real estate, where the same principle applies: transparency about the starting point enables better decisions.
Why This Will Only Become More Important
The demands that modern business operations place on digital infrastructure are growing steadily — and that trajectory is not about to change direction.
Consider what the typical business environment increasingly requires:
- Cloud applications running continuously across the entire organisation
- Video calling at scale, with multiple simultaneous high-definition streams
- AI tools that process and transfer large volumes of data in real time
- Smart Building systems that manage energy, access, climate, and security digitally
- IoT devices from sensors to connected equipment, all requiring stable network access
- Cybersecurity infrastructure that depends on reliable, controllable connectivity
All of these place real, physical demands on the buildings in which businesses operate. A building's digital infrastructure is no longer a secondary consideration — it is part of the core specification. PropTech innovation has already transformed how properties are found, assessed, and transacted. The IT Label concept is a natural extension of that shift: bringing the same data-driven clarity to digital infrastructure that other PropTech tools have brought to location intelligence, sustainability, and market pricing.
As the case for every building needing an IT label becomes clearer, it is worth noting that early adopters — both landlords and tenants — are already ahead of the curve.
Where the IT Label Stands Today
To be straightforward: the IT Label is not yet an official, legally recognised certification. It is an initiative — a serious and well-reasoned one — designed to encourage the commercial real estate sector to think carefully about a dimension of buildings that has so far been largely invisible in property marketing and leasing practice.
That does not diminish its value. The energy label itself started as an idea before it became standard practice and, eventually, a legal requirement in many markets. The IT Label is following a similar path: beginning as a voluntary framework that creates a shared language, and gradually gaining traction as more landlords, tenants, and advisers recognise its practical usefulness.
The goal is not to rank buildings or create a league table of digital quality. The goal is to make expectations transparent before contracts are signed — to ensure that the digital reality of a building is as clearly communicated as its energy performance, its floor area, and its location.
"The goal is not to judge buildings, but to make expectations crystal clear from the outset."
Digital infrastructure has become a baseline requirement for almost every type of business occupier. An IT Label gives that requirement a framework, a language, and a place in the conversation between tenants and landlords. The sooner that conversation becomes standard practice in commercial real estate, the fewer costly surprises there will be on both sides of the lease.
Do you think an IT Label is a logical next step for commercial real estate? We would be genuinely interested in your perspective.
