Trei Real Estate GmbH (“Trei”), an international developer and asset manager for residential and retail real estate, collaborated with estate agency Müller Merkle Immobilien (“MMI”) in its first large-scale use of digital signatures to conclude apartment lease agreements with tenants. Over a period of ten to twelve weeks, about 300 apartment lease agreements involving two new-build developments of Trei in Berlin were digitally signed into effect. To this end, the two companies used a dedicated tool developed by software vendor d.velop. Trei had commissioned MMI to handle the first lettings of 300 newly completed apartments on Winsstrasse (Prenzlauer Berg district) and on Fürstenberger Strasse (Mitte district) in Berlin. Both properties were already fully occupied by the time of their completion late last year, and many tenants were able to move in immediately – not least because of the swift digital letting process.
René Westerheider, Head of Asset Management at Trei, commented: “The use of digital signatures has seriously accelerated the entire process of signing lease agreements. Using paper forms, it would have taken us up considerably longer to process such a high number of lease agreements. In this case, signing an apartment lease agreement involves four different parties, these being Trei as proprietor, Müller Merkle Immobilien as first landlord, Apleona as property manager and finally the lessee. The advantage of the new solution is this: All parties are in possession of a digital copy directly after signing. Working with hard copies is always subject to serious time lags. The traditional process using postal mail takes two weeks, yet in some cases it took six to eight weeks until all counterparts of an agreement had been signed by all parties to the agreement. Owing to the high level of automation achieved by Müller Merkle Immobilien and to the use of digital signatures, this process was in some cases completed within a single day.”
Felix Henne, Managing Director of Müller Merkle Immobilien, added: “The majority of our daily workflows is already digitised anyway, and technical advances in the coming years will make it easier for our ‘digital worlds’ or systems, some of which are customised, to communicate with each other and thereby help us achieve a new level of efficiency and transparency with our daily routines. With this future scenario in mind, it appears almost a little absurd to transition a digitally generated lease agreement from the digital into the analogue world by printing it, only to scan it back in after a number of stops and days. So, it seems quite clear even at this time that it is only a matter of time before the digital lease agreement will prevail as industry standard. Letting new-build or standing properties on behalf of institutional real estate players represents our core business. Letting these apartments for Trei was the first time that we used digital signatures to carry out an assignment entirely via the digital process, and I am very glad that it proved so successful in practice. We let more than 3,000 apartments annually, and plan to soon be able to use the fully digital process for all of the lease signings if possible.”