For a long time – and still today in a large majority of companies – Excel has been the default tool for managing real estate data: technical inventories, maintenance plans, charge reporting, consumption tracking, equipment lists, and investment forecasts.
One must say that Excel is powerful, accessible, flexible, universal. Everyone knows how to open it, modify it, add a formula, or create a pivot table. But this apparent simplicity masks deep structural limits, which become real obstacles at the scale of a complex real estate portfolio.
Excel in real estate: why it is still used
Before pointing out its limits, let’s acknowledge what still makes Excel successful in real estate professions:
Ease of access: no training or SaaS subscription needed, the tool is often already installed.
Modeling flexibility: any type of table, matrix, or simulation can be built on the fly.
Cross-functional use: managers, finance, technical staff, everyone speaks the language of the Excel file.
Responsiveness: one can create a table or a report in a few minutes for a meeting.
Thus, Excel has supported the gradual structuring of real estate data for decades. But what has made it strong is also today its weakness.
The limits of Excel in the face of the complexity of real estate assets
1. No reliable versioning
How many times has a file "Inventory_buildings_vFinal_DEF2_OK.xlsx" circulated alongside three other different versions?
Excel does not manage history, modifications, or multiple contributions. This results in critical data errors, missed updates, and total loss of traceability.
2. High risks of data loss or overwriting
A poorly saved file, a broken link, a deleted cell, and the information is lost. There is no application security in Excel, no user roles, no automated backups.
3. Non-interoperable data
An Excel file does not "talk" to other systems. It connects neither to a CMMS, nor to a BIM tool, nor to an ERP, except by tinkering with macros or manual exports. The result: data silos are created, impossible to exploit smoothly or in real-time.
4. No dynamics at the portfolio level
An Excel sheet can manage one building. Maybe two. But when managing 100 buildings, 10,000 pieces of equipment, 15 years of data, Excel quickly reaches its limits in terms of performance, readability, and structure.
5. No smooth collaboration
Excel is not designed for simultaneous teamwork. Email back and forth, network sharing, or local copies create discrepancies, information losses, and sometimes decisions made based on outdated information.
Why does Excel persist despite everything in real estate?
The resistance to change is a reality. Excel continues to be used because:
Teams have been trained on it for years;
Management has not always identified a clear and accessible alternative;
Some digitization projects have failed due to lack of ownership or clear ROI;
Excel files are often the only available "reference".
In other words, Excel is a symptom of a lack of suitable or adopted business tooling.
The emergence of PropTech: towards structured, connected, and collaborative management
In the face of these limits, a new generation of solutions – PropTech – meets the specific needs of real estate players, with tools designed to:
Structure technical data: equipment, areas, contracts, diagnostics, etc.
Automate updates and synchronize sources (IoT, audits, field…)
Work as a team, on the go, with simple and secure interfaces
Manage at the portfolio level, rather than building by building
Connect to other SI components (CMMS, ERP, ESG platform…)
These tools enable moving beyond the spreadsheet, providing visibility, continuity, traceability, and operational performance.
Conclusion: Excel, a tool that has served well, but hinders modern property management
Excel has laid the groundwork for real estate data. But today, it no longer allows extracting value at the scale of a portfolio, a multi-year plan, or an ESG strategy.
To effectively manage assets, meet regulatory obligations, plan investments, and industrialize audits, tools designed for real estate, interoperable, scalable, and collaborative are needed.
Excel will not disappear overnight. But it is time to put it back in its rightful place: a supplementary tool, not an information system.
