Interview Heike Beyer – Head of Asset Management DACH
01.12.2023 • 5 Reading Time
“I am a real estate person through and through”
About Heike Beyer
Heike Beyer has been Head of Asset Management DACH at Commerz Real since 2020 and is responsible for managing over 50 office properties with her team. The graduate business economist and real estate economist has more than 30 years of professional experience, including over 20 years in real estate. In addition to various areas of responsibility in Germany, in particular Frankfurt, she worked abroad extensively, including in South America. In our “Inside the Job” section, she explains what makes good asset management and why she needs to be familiar with stressful situations of a very different nature.
One of the first questions I often hear from the young talents in the team is: why swap an exciting working day between Peru, Venezuela and St. Petersburg for asset management in the German-speaking region? The answer is as simple as it is complex: at Commerz Real, I am responsible for one of the most diverse portfolios I can imagine. For example, we have a part of the Frankfurt skyline in our portfolio with the Omniturm tower, but with the “Neuer Wall 44” in Hamburg we also have a listed ensemble right next to the most well-known fleet in the Hanseatic city. Two properties that couldn't be more different in their history, location and tenancy. Yet, it combines the challenge of maintaining the value of the buildings through good asset management and ideally raising it.
Working in asset management shows me time and again that real estate may have one façade, but it has a thousand facets. My team takes care of harmonising precisely this diversity of tasks. In asset management, you get to know virtually everything about real estate – tenant management, rental contract law, maintenance management, market analysis, operating cost optimisation, service provider management, tax aspects, traditional profitability calculation and much more. If you like to be a generalist and want to help shape many different topics, there’s nothing better – that is at least my view of one of the best jobs ever.
Asset management is an ideal basis for almost any job in the real estate industry, especially for those starting a career. When you come to the office in the morning, you never know exactly what the day will hold. A hole in a water pipe during maintenance work in a building can turn the day's agenda upside down. But this required flexibility is also rewarded. Your everyday life is incredibly varied and the many small achievements are rewarding. This makes the job extremely satisfying.
The versatility and ultimately also the wide range of responsibilities that we bear ensures that we gain tremendous experience, which increases every day. Our team is diverse, ranging from working students or trainees to employees with many years of professional experience. The dynamic that arises from this enriches us a lot as a team. Because even if you've been in the industry for a long time like me, experience helps you to make decisions or deal with certain situations – but we can't rest on our laurels. We are, in the first instance, service providers and must develop further in line with the requirements placed on our properties. Then you have to get to grips with basic electrical engineering in order to understand what load balancing management is when it comes to electric charging stations, for example. So sometimes a voltage stress ratio becomes literal.
Commerz Real – and I feel that this is a differentiating feature from my previous jobs – combines incredibly many good aspects for working in asset management: lots of in-house skills, which makes it easier to get things done and provides sparring partners on most topics; many colleagues with a heart for real estate and, ultimately, simply incredibly likeable people. Oh, and of course a fantastic portfolio, I can't stress that often enough.
Working in asset management shows me time and again that real estate may have one façade, but it has a thousand facets. My team takes care of harmonising precisely this diversity of tasks. In asset management, you get to know virtually everything about real estate – tenant management, rental contract law, maintenance management, market analysis, operating cost optimisation, service provider management, tax aspects, traditional profitability calculation and much more. If you like to be a generalist and want to help shape many different topics, there’s nothing better – that is at least my view of one of the best jobs ever.
Asset management is an ideal basis for almost any job in the real estate industry, especially for those starting a career. When you come to the office in the morning, you never know exactly what the day will hold. A hole in a water pipe during maintenance work in a building can turn the day's agenda upside down. But this required flexibility is also rewarded. Your everyday life is incredibly varied and the many small achievements are rewarding. This makes the job extremely satisfying.
The versatility and ultimately also the wide range of responsibilities that we bear ensures that we gain tremendous experience, which increases every day. Our team is diverse, ranging from working students or trainees to employees with many years of professional experience. The dynamic that arises from this enriches us a lot as a team. Because even if you've been in the industry for a long time like me, experience helps you to make decisions or deal with certain situations – but we can't rest on our laurels. We are, in the first instance, service providers and must develop further in line with the requirements placed on our properties. Then you have to get to grips with basic electrical engineering in order to understand what load balancing management is when it comes to electric charging stations, for example. So sometimes a voltage stress ratio becomes literal.
Commerz Real – and I feel that this is a differentiating feature from my previous jobs – combines incredibly many good aspects for working in asset management: lots of in-house skills, which makes it easier to get things done and provides sparring partners on most topics; many colleagues with a heart for real estate and, ultimately, simply incredibly likeable people. Oh, and of course a fantastic portfolio, I can't stress that often enough.