Every building today has an energy label. Walk into any commercial property listing, and you will find clear information about its environmental performance—how efficiently it uses heating, cooling, and electricity. The energy label has become a standard fixture in real estate, trusted by tenants, landlords, and investors alike.
But ask a tenant about the digital quality of the building they are renting, and you will likely get a blank stare. How fast is the internet? Is fibre-optic cable installed? What is the state of the internal cabling infrastructure? Can the building support modern cloud applications and cybersecurity standards? These questions often remain unanswered until after a lease is signed—or worse, until problems emerge during operations.
This contradiction lies at the heart of a fundamental market failure in commercial real estate today. Buildings are becoming increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure, yet information about that infrastructure remains fragmented, opaque, and unavailable to the people who need it most.
The Invisible Foundation of Modern Work
Digital infrastructure is no longer a luxury or an afterthought in commercial real estate. It is the foundation upon which modern business operates.
Consider what a typical organization now depends on: broadband connectivity, wireless networks, cloud services, video conferencing systems, cybersecurity protections, VoIP telephone systems, and increasingly, AI-powered applications. A building's physical quality—its square metres, its location, its aesthetics—matters far less if the digital systems that support work are inadequate or outdated.
Yet when tenants search for office space for rent in Amsterdam or any other major European city, they encounter a strange asymmetry. Property listings detail nearly everything: square footage, rent per metre, parking spaces, meeting room configurations, break-out areas, and of course, the energy label. But digital infrastructure—the invisible nervous system of the building—is treated as if it barely exists.
Ask a property manager about network bandwidth, and you might be told "there is internet." Ask whether the building has fibre-optic connectivity, and you may receive vague assurances or be redirected to the IT department. Ask about cabling standards, patch panel locations, or cybersecurity readiness, and most property teams cannot provide a clear answer.
This is not because property managers are incompetent. It is because the market has never demanded a standardized way to measure and communicate digital quality.
The Frustration That Started It All
Colin Westerneng and Miquel van Dongen, the founders of RE-SEARCH, encountered this problem repeatedly during their work in commercial real estate. Week after week, they spoke with entrepreneurs, investors, and tenants who needed to make critical decisions about where to establish their operations—decisions that hinged partly on digital infrastructure, yet for which reliable information was nearly impossible to obtain.
A small software development company looking for office space for rent in Rotterdam needs to know whether the building can support high-speed fibre-optic connectivity and robust cybersecurity systems. A logistics firm requires reliable, uninterrupted connectivity for warehouse management systems. A financial services company needs to understand whether the building meets data protection standards. Yet none of these critical requirements appeared anywhere in standard property listings.
Instead, tenants had to navigate a fragmented information landscape. They would contact the landlord's property manager, who might contact a technical team, who might eventually provide some information—months later, if at all. Or they would discover critical gaps only after moving in, when their operations were already disrupted.
The frustration was not unique to RE-SEARCH's clients. It was systemic. On virtually every commercial real estate platform, every property listing site, every broker's website, information about digital infrastructure was either missing entirely or buried in vague descriptions like "high-speed internet available" or "modern cable infrastructure."
What made this particularly striking was that the real estate market had long ago solved a similar problem with energy labels. When the European Union introduced mandatory energy performance certificates, they created a standardized framework that made environmental quality transparent, comparable, and actionable. Tenants and investors could instantly understand how efficiently a building performed. The energy label became a conversation starter, a decision point, a negotiation tool.
Why, Colin and Miquel asked, should digital quality not receive the same treatment?
What Information Is Missing?
To understand the scale of the gap, consider what a comprehensive digital assessment should cover:
- Internet connectivity: Speed, reliability, and redundancy of primary and backup connections
- Fibre-optic infrastructure: Presence, accessibility, and future-readiness for high-capacity broadband
- Internal cabling: Condition, standards compliance, and capacity of copper and fibre networks throughout the building
- Wireless networks: Coverage, capacity, and support for modern mobile and IoT devices
- Technical spaces: Adequate patch rooms, server closets, and equipment areas with proper cooling and security
- Cybersecurity readiness: Building-level protections, monitoring capabilities, and alignment with modern security standards
- Cloud and VoIP support: Infrastructure that enables organizations to operate modern communication and computing systems
- Monitoring and management: Systems that allow continuous oversight of network health and performance
For most commercial properties across Europe, comprehensive information on even half of these factors is unavailable to prospective tenants. Many property owners do not systematically assess or document these attributes. Others view digital infrastructure as the tenant's responsibility rather than a building amenity.
This creates a situation where tenants are essentially purchasing a critical asset—the digital foundation of their operations—blind.
Why Has This Gap Persisted?
The absence of a digital infrastructure standard in commercial real estate is not accidental. It reflects deeper structural factors in the industry:
Historical focus on physical assets: Real estate has traditionally emphasized tangible characteristics—location, size, build quality, finishes. Digital infrastructure was viewed as a utility, not a defining feature of a property.
Fragmented responsibility: IT departments within organizations have historically managed digital infrastructure independently of real estate decisions. Property managers and IT teams operated in separate silos, rarely communicating about infrastructure requirements.
Lack of common language: There is no industry-wide standard for assessing, measuring, or describing digital quality in buildings. Different organizations use different metrics, different standards, and different terminology. Comparison is impossible.
Underestimation of impact: Until recently, many in the real estate industry viewed digital infrastructure as a secondary concern, overshadowed by more visible factors like location or energy efficiency. This has changed rapidly—especially since the shift to hybrid and remote work—but mindsets in real estate move slowly.
Economic incentives: If property owners are not required to disclose digital quality, they have limited incentive to invest in upgrading infrastructure or even documenting what they have. The transparency burden falls on the tenant.
What has changed is the business reality. A building without adequate digital infrastructure is no longer simply inconvenient—it is a competitive disadvantage. Organizations can no longer afford to lease space in buildings where their digital operations will be compromised. Yet because digital quality remains invisible in property listings and negotiations, many buildings will eventually discover—too late—that their digital infrastructure is obsolete and their tenants are leaving.
The IT Label: Bringing Transparency to Digital Quality
The IT Label is designed to solve this problem by doing exactly what the energy label does: making digital quality visible, standardized, and comparable.
An IT Label assessment would evaluate a building's digital infrastructure across multiple dimensions and assign a clear rating or grade. This rating would be prominently displayed in property listings, communicated to prospective tenants, and updated as the building's digital capabilities evolve.
The benefits are substantial:
- Transparency: Tenants know immediately what digital capabilities a building offers, without months of inquiries and uncertainty.
- Comparability: Two buildings can be evaluated using the same framework, making it easier for organizations to compare options and make informed decisions.
- Investment signal: A strong IT Label rating becomes a selling point for property owners, incentivizing investment in digital infrastructure upgrades.
- Risk reduction: Organizations can avoid costly surprises and operational disruptions after signing a lease.
- Future-proofing: Buildings with high IT Label ratings are more attractive to tenants and maintain stronger market value as technology requirements evolve.
- Dialogue improvement: The IT Label framework provides a shared language for conversations between property owners, tenants, and IT professionals.
This mirrors what has happened with energy labels in real estate. Before mandatory energy performance certificates, buildings were assessed and compared in ad-hoc ways. Now, energy performance is a standard conversation point, a negotiation factor, and a driver of investment decisions. Buildings with poor energy ratings either retrofit themselves or accept lower rents and reduced marketability.
Digital infrastructure should follow the same logic. When IT Label ratings become standard information in property listings, they will drive real change: property owners will invest in better digital infrastructure, tenants will make better-informed choices, and the overall quality of commercial real estate will improve.
Why Digital Infrastructure Will Reshape Commercial Real Estate
The timing for the IT Label is not coincidental. Several converging forces have made digital quality a defining factor in commercial real estate:
Remote and hybrid work: The shift away from traditional office-based work means that digital connectivity is no longer just important—it is often the primary determinant of whether an office makes sense at all. If workers can log in from anywhere, organizations will only pay premium rent for offices in buildings with exceptional digital infrastructure and user experience.
AI and automation: As organizations increasingly deploy AI-powered applications, data analytics, and automation, the computational demands on buildings' digital infrastructure will only grow. Yesterday's broadband speeds will be inadequate for tomorrow's requirements.
Cybersecurity risk: As cyber threats increase, organizations are scrutinizing the digital security posture of their physical locations. A building that cannot support modern cybersecurity standards represents a business risk.
Sustainability and ESG: Just as environmental criteria have become central to real estate investment decisions, digital infrastructure—which enables energy management systems, occupancy optimization, and operational efficiency—is increasingly viewed as part of broader sustainability performance.
These factors mean that in five to ten years, a building's digital infrastructure rating will likely be as standard and as influential in tenant decision-making as its energy label is today. Properties without it will gradually become less competitive.
The Role of RE-SEARCH in Advancing Digital Transparency
RE-SEARCH's commitment to developing and promoting the IT Label reflects a broader philosophy: that commercial real estate markets function better when information is accessible, transparent, and standardized.
Just as RE-SEARCH has worked to make commercial real estate data more transparent and searchable, the IT Label aims to make digital infrastructure quality visible and comparable. The same principle applies: when market participants have clear, reliable information, they make better decisions. Competition improves. Better matches between tenants and properties emerge. Prices become more rational.
When you are searching for office space for rent in Venlo or any other European location, you should know not just the square metres and the rent, but also the digital quality of the building. You should be able to compare the IT capabilities of different properties as easily as you compare their energy labels. You should have transparency.
This is what the IT Label enables.
Building a Standard for Tomorrow
The IT Label will not develop overnight. Like the energy label, it will require buy-in from property owners, standardization bodies, industry associations, and users. There will be debate about what criteria matter most, how to weight different factors, and how to ensure consistency across assessments.
But the direction is clear. Digital infrastructure is no longer optional or secondary in commercial real estate. It is foundational. And as long as information about digital quality remains fragmented and unavailable, the market will continue to operate with one hand tied behind its back.
The energy label transformed how buildings are evaluated and improved. It made invisible environmental performance visible. It created standards. It drove investment. It gave tenants and investors the information they needed to make better decisions.
The IT Label aims to do the same for digital infrastructure. In doing so, it will help ensure that the commercial real estate of the future is not only physically well-designed and energy-efficient, but also digitally robust, secure, and future-proof.
That is a standard worth building.
