The commercial real estate (CRE) industry is facing a new threat to asset value – an Experience Gap that is draining billions of dollars in potential returns. Today’s tenants expect more from buildings than ever before, and when those expectations aren’t met, the fallout hits everything from occupancy rates to rental yields. For asset managers and investors, that means slipping net operating income (NOI) and property values. For leasing brokers, it means tougher deals as tenant demand cools. For property managers, it means more churn and harder-to-please occupants.
This article defines the Experience Gap, explores what’s causing it, and presents research-backed insights that prove its financial consequences. The goal is to demonstrate why this issue matters now – and how CRE leaders can turn it into a competitive advantage.
The prevailing narrative has been that today’s distress stems from interest rates and hybrid work—but those explanations alone don’t account for the growing performance gap between top-tier assets and everyone else. The truth is, this isn’t just an interest rate issue—it’s an Experience Gap issue.
What is the Experience Gap?
Simply put, the Experience Gap is the growing disparity between what modern tenants expect from a property and what that property actually delivers. In other words, it’s the chasm between tenant expectations and building realities. This gap has been widening rapidly in recent years as tenant demands evolve faster than many buildings and management approaches can adapt. Failing to recognize and close this gap means a property risks falling behind in the market.
In 2015, a “good” office building was defined by updated lobbies, efficient HVAC, proximity to transit, and a reliable set of basic amenities—Wi-Fi, coffee, and maybe a shared conference room. Golf pods and pickleball courts weren’t even in the zeitgeist, and tenant experience wasn’t part of the strategic playbook. Today, tenants are looking for responsive service, flexible spaces, digital amenities, community events, sustainability features – the list keeps growing. The Experience Gap measures how far a given asset is from meeting those rising expectations. And as we’ll see, that gap isn’t just a theoretical idea; it’s quantifiable and growing.
The Experience Gap in Action: Where It’s Showing Up
TI Spend Frequency
Tenant improvement allowances are up more than 30% between 2015 and 2023 (JLL/CBRE), reflecting a shift in lease terms and expectations. With 3–7 year leases becoming the norm, landlords are refreshing space 2–3 times more often than they did in the era of 10–15 year terms. That cadence requires more operational agility and capital planning—just to keep pace with expectations.
Amenity & Design Turnover
Workplace design has entered a state of constant iteration. A 2023 Gensler report notes that user expectations now operate in “constant iteration, not static design.” The days of once-per-decade lobby renovations are gone. Today’s tenants expect buildings to evolve with them—with flexible, lifestyle-oriented amenities that actually get used. Still, many CRE firms overinvest in outdated concepts (like traditional cafés and oversized conference rooms) while underinvesting in tenant-valued spaces like gyms, shared lounges, and green features.
Tenant Tech Expectations
Deloitte’s 2023 CRE Outlook found that tenants increasingly expect their buildings to operate more like software: responsive, personalized, and constantly improving. Yet:
- 66% of property teams still default to phone calls as their primary communication method
- Only 4% of tenants prefer phone-first communication, favoring app-based engagement
- 80% of landlords say experience is a top focus, yet only 28% devote sufficient budget
This mismatch—between CRE intent and tenant expectations—exposes the illusion of experience delivery. Many buildings believe they’re experience-forward, but lack the tools, budget, or data to deliver on that promise. The result is a compounding performance drag.
Why It’s Happening: Compressed Business Cycles & Changing Work Models
According to McKinsey, business and economic cycles have accelerated dramatically. What used to unfold over decades now shifts in quarters. Disruptions once considered once-in-a-career—remote work, AI adoption, hybrid operations—are now regular occurrences. CRE operators are forced to reposition assets, rethink capital allocation, and respond to demand shifts with unprecedented speed.
This compressed environment has deep implications for how tenants think about space—and how CRE must respond.
Human Capital Planning in an Age of Uncertainty
Planning for headcount and office usage used to be a 5- to 10-year outlook. Today, businesses face tremendous variability:
- Shorter strategic planning horizons
- Shifting team structures and hybrid schedules
- Greater reliance on distributed workforces
- AI and automation rapidly redefining job functions
A 2023 Gartner study found that 75% of HR leaders expect over one-third of roles to be reshaped by AI within five years. These transformations directly influence how much space companies need, what kind of space they value, and how consistently they’ll use it.
Why This Drives the Experience Gap
In this context, tenant expectations have grown more dynamic. They don’t just want flexibility—they require it. Buildings that can’t adapt to evolving work rhythms, team structures, and digital workflows create friction. Every unmet need, every static feature, every outdated assumption becomes a source of frustration.
This is the core of the Experience Gap: while tenant behaviors shift rapidly, most CRE operations remain rigid. The result is declining retention, weakened pricing power, and tenant-led churn. On the flip side, properties that meet modern expectations—through service, design, flexibility, and digital enablement—stand out and gain lasting competitive advantage.
This divide in outcomes—and philosophy—isn’t accidental. It reflects a deeper transformation underway across the industry.
Legacy CRE organizations—what we call “Transactional Landlords”—treat leasing as the finish line and tenant service as a cost center. Their models are linear, siloed, and inflexible.
Experiential CRE organizations take a fundamentally different approach. They operate like platforms—constantly engaging tenants, personalizing service, and using data to drive long-term value. For them, tenant experience isn’t a buzzword—it’s the business model.
For CRE leaders, the imperative is clear: close the gap or fall behind.
- Audit tenant satisfaction regularly. What’s measured gets managed. Use surveys, feedback loops, and engagement metrics.
- Benchmark experience KPIs like renewal rates, service satisfaction, and amenity usage.
- Invest in experience enablers: mobile apps, digital signage, Wi-Fi infrastructure, and flexible space usage data.
- Align teams around tenant-centric operations—not just leasing and maintenance.
Closing the Experience Gap is no longer just about tenant happiness—it’s a strategy for asset performance and long-term value.
Want to understand the difference between these two approaches? We break it down across nine key dimensions in our next piece: Legacy vs. Experiential CRE—Who’s Winning and Why.
Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash
