Footfall is asset value. Start measuring it
Most property companies make major investment and leasing decisions on assumptions or thin data. The attraction of a building (how many people pass, enter and stay) is one of its core value drivers, yet it usually goes unmeasured. Once you measure it, you can price, lease and develop on facts.
Footfall as asset value across the portfolio, measured privacy-first.
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Why property companies choose Bumbee Labs
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Footfall as asset value
Passers-by, capture rate and visits per building turn a property's attraction into the raw material for rent-setting, valuation and tenant conversations.
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Benchmark across the portfolio
The same metrics across every building and season make asset performance comparable, and measure the effect of a refurbishment before, during and after.
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Deploy across an estate safely
The measurement is anonymous and DPA-approved, so an estate-wide rollout gives your legal team nothing to worry about.
On this page
Property portfolio footfall analytics gives property companies counts of passers-by, visits and dwell time per building, so buildings compare like for like. It runs mostly on the Wi-Fi the buildings already have, topped up only where coverage is thin. Bumbee Labs is the company behind the only footfall method in Europe approved by a data protection authority.
The short version
- Property portfolio footfall analytics counts passers-by, visits and dwell time for each building, floor and unit of an estate, mostly over the Wi-Fi the buildings already have.
- Eight portfolio questions have full answers below: the pull of a building in the rent case, valuation, buildings falling behind, refurbishment, vacant units, place or concept, the investment budget and lease expiry. Nine more get a short answer.
- Standard figures are ready the day after the visit and roll up from the whole estate to a single unit.
- A major Stockholm retail asset used the data to move its rents onto footfall and then extended the approach to the rest of its estate.
Which decisions can footfall data support across a property portfolio?
Property companies are one of three segments of footfall analytics for property owners with retail, next to malls and retail parks.
Rents follow comparable deals. How do we put a number on what our building itself draws?
Put the footfall the building draws next to the comparable deals. For a property company, counts of passers-by, entries and visits per building show what each location delivers, so a rent case rests on more than other leases. Wi-Fi people counting produces the counts, and turnover rent covers how they are used at the table.
We are selling a building. What can we show a buyer or a valuer about what the location is worth?
Show a measured visit series for the building. Buyers, valuers and banks can read it as evidence in a retail property valuation, and it only carries weight if it was counted the same way over time. A property company that has measured consistently can show that; benchmarking footfall explains why.
Which buildings in our portfolio are losing ground against the rest, season by season?
Count every building the same way and compare. With the same metrics across the portfolio and across seasons, a property company sees which assets lose visitors against the rest of the estate. With one method in every building, a gap between two buildings comes from the buildings themselves. How to count visitors sets out the method.
We refurbished a building. Did visits and flows change before, during and after the project?
Count the building the same way before, during and after the project, so the three periods compare. A property company can then read off the change in visits the refurbishment brought, and a retail heatmap shows whether people now move through the building differently.
Units are vacant in several of our buildings. What traffic can we show each prospective tenant?
Quote the traffic past each unit as a measured figure. Counts of passers-by outside a unit and visits to the building let a property company give every prospect the same kind of evidence, building by building. Add where visitors come from to show how far the draw reaches.
One tenant is weak in an otherwise busy building. Is it the location or the concept?
Read passers-by against entries. High passing traffic with a low capture rate points to the concept, and low passing traffic points to the location. That lets a landlord tell a weak tenant from a weak building, because the street sets how many people pass and the unit decides how many of them walk in.
Which of our properties should get the investment budget this year?
Rank the buildings on visit trend and capture rate. For a property company’s investment committee, these show where an investment has an audience to win and where it does not. Mobile network data adds where visitors travel from, which shows how far a location’s trade area reaches.
A lease runs out. Do we extend it, raise the rent or change tenant?
Read the unit’s footfall / visitor count and capture rate across the whole lease term. They show whether the tenant carries the space and what a replacement would have to work with. A landlord can then extend, raise the rent or change tenant on measured visits.
Which other questions can a property company answer with its footfall data?
- What is a car-free street worth to our properties?A national Swedish study by Oana Mihaescu at the Institute of Retail Economics (HFI) links longer pedestrian streets to higher property prices nearby, and footfall counted before and after a street change shows how visits develop around them; see pedestrian streets.
- What do we get for our fee to the city partnership?Property owners in a BID or city partnership can read what joint efforts deliver in a per-street footfall series, counted the same way each year; see town centre footfall monitoring.
- Can management see the whole estate while the property manager sees one building?The same figures run from portfolio to building to unit, so the management report and the building’s daily work rest on one series.
- Can cleaning and maintenance follow how the building is actually used?Peaks and trends per building show when it is busy and when it is quiet, so service work can be planned around visitors.
- What are the shops and cafés in our station properties worth?The flow through a station shows what the units in it are worth; see public transport hubs.
- Can we measure across the whole estate without the lawyers saying no?The measurement is anonymous and produces no personal data, so a property company can bring the same method to every building; see GDPR footfall analytics.
- Due diligence: how do we measure a property we do not own yet?Without sensors of our own, mobile network data shows where a location’s visitors travel from, which gives the buyer a view of its trade area before the purchase.
- Which ground-floor unit should become a shop, a café or a service?The flow past each street-level unit in the estate shows which locations carry retail, as evidence for the choice of use.
- Empty shop units: what does the vacancy do to the street?Counts before and after units empty show what changed in visits, and the same counts show whether a pop-up let for a period keeps visitors coming; see pop-up stores.
What data you get
- Passers-by and capture rateper building: the pull effect of a property, its frontage, its location and its tenants, and the raw material for rent negotiations.
- Visit countsfor whole buildings, floors, zones and individual units.
- Dwell time and visitor pathshow long people stay and how they move through a property.
- Building-to-building benchmarkingthe same metrics across the portfolio and across seasons, so asset performance is comparable.
- Development and refurbishment impactmeasure the effect of a project on visitor pull before, during and after.
- Peaks, trends and crowdingfor facilities planning, maintenance scheduling and safety, ready the day after the visit.
- Space utilisationsee which floors, units and common areas are active and which sit underused, as part of a wider portfolio-management brief.
→ The full metric catalogue and delivery formats
What did a major Stockholm retail asset do with its footfall data?
On a major Stockholm retail asset, reliable visit, capture-rate and dwell data let the owner shift to footfall-based rents, price space and event areas on real exposure, and separate true anchors from dead zones. The owner then extended the same approach to the rest of the estate.
Where this fits
- If the asset in question is specifically a shopping centre, the operator’s side (tenant mix, food court, screens and event spaces) is covered in depth on mall operators & property owners.
- Screens and billboards across your estate are a revenue line of their own (see outdoor & DOOH advertising analytics), and where the visitors to your buildings come from is the subject of city-centre & smart-city analytics.
Curious what this looks like for your venue?
Approved and validated
The method is approved by a data protection authority, validated by academia and customers, and uses no personal data. That is evidence you can take to an investment committee.
We are very happy to announce this partnership with Bumbee Labs to boost our Wireless solutions portfolio and bring what we believe is the future for retail businesses, measured by trustful data. What can't be measured, can't be improved.
Frequently asked questions
Can a property company set rents on footfall instead of comparable deals?
Yes. Passers-by and capture rate per building quantify a property's pull, which gives a rent negotiation something firmer than comparable deals to stand on.
Can a property company prove what a refurbishment changed with footfall analytics?
Yes. Visitor pull is measured before, during and after a project, so you can put a number on what the refurbishment changed.
How does footfall data roll up across a property company's portfolio?
At three levels. Asset management reads the whole estate, property managers read their own buildings, and a tenant-facing feed can be offered as a service.
Where this fits
Industries and segments
Challenges
Metrics
Data protection:GDPR-compliant footfall analyticsThe IMY decisionGDPR-compliant vs approved