Most CRE owners donโt realize theyโre locked inโฆ until itโs too late
Week 49: The Hidden Cost of Vendor Lock-In (And How to Avoid It)
In this weekly series, we explore how the commercial real estate industry is being transformed by data and digital infrastructure. Guided by the principles in Peak Property Performance (Podcast & Best-Selling Book), we unpack a new idea every week to help owners unlock value, reduce risk, and digitally future-proof their portfolios. Learn more about OpticWise and Bill Douglas, the authors of this series.
Most CRE owners donโt realize theyโre locked inโฆ until itโs too late.
It usually starts innocently:
- A building management platform
- A managed Wi-Fi provider
- A proprietary access control system
- A tenant experience app
- A bundled โsmart buildingโ solution
At first, it feels efficient. One vendor. One platform. One point of contact.
But over time, the costs begin to surface. Not just financial costs. Strategic costs.
What Vendor Lock-In Really Means
Vendor lock-in occurs when ownership becomes dependent on a providerโs proprietary systems, infrastructure, or data environment to operate the building.
That dependency often shows up in ways owners donโt initially see:
- Data that canโt be exported
- Systems that wonโt integrate with competitors
- Contracts that restrict flexibility
- Hardware that only works within one ecosystem
- Connectivity controlled by someone other than ownership
At that point, the vendor doesnโt just support the building. They influence its future.
Rightmove
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
Labourโs housebuilding fantasy has collapsed and Vistry is the proof
National Housebuilder Vistry is like the Labour government, over-promised, over-leveraged and out of cash
Thought leadership by Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
National Housebuilder Vistry is a metaphor for the Labour government, it promised huge delivery, but does not have a plan or the cash to achieve its goals. Winning the right to be the biggest stakeholder in social housing it was all going to be so good, a housebuilding partnership made in heaven what could go wrong? Instead, the partyโs favourite developer is slamming on the brakes, telling workers to down tools, and desperately trying to preserve cash while investors flee for the exits.
Vistry repeatedly championed by senior Labour figures including (former Housing Secretary) Angela Rayner and Matthew Pennycook, has become the clearest symbol yet of the widening gap between Labourโs rhetoric and economic reality.
This is the same company ministers held up as the model for delivering Britainโs housing future. Now its old CEO Fitzgerald who became Chair has exited quick sharp and the company is now issuing profit warnings, watching its share price collapse, and reportedly instructing subcontractors to halt work on unsold homes because demand simply is not there. (Shades of the present PM Starmer and the vultures circling overhead).
The numbers are staggering
Vistryโs share price has crashed by 57 per cent this year alone and is down roughly 80 per cent from its August 2024 peak. Short sellers, investors who profit from decline, now control around 12.5 per cent of shares on loan, the highest level on record for the company.
That is not market โnoise.โ That is a serious vote of no confidence.
The company issued three profit warnings last year and has now admitted that 85 per cent of its expected profits will need to arrive in the second half of 2026, an extraordinarily back-loaded forecast that many analysts view as highly risky in deteriorating market conditions. (Again a parallel to the often quoted promised delivery of 1.5M new homes over five years, which the present Housing secretary says will uptick towards the end of Labourโs present term in government.)
Meanwhile, whilst the companyโs reported forward order book may stand at ยฃ4.5 billion, its cash preservation measures tell a vastly different story. According to leaked correspondence, subcontractors have been ordered to halt work on unsold private homes unless legal completion is expected before June 30, just six weeks away.
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
A suite of luxury, hotel-style bedrooms integrated at OSiT Monument โ are fully booked between the 11th to the 19th June
I
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
