Our industry is engaged in an important dialogue to improve the efficiency and resilience of real assets through transparency and industry collaboration. This article is a contribution to this larger conversation and does not necessarily reflect GRESB’s position.
As global sustainability standards evolve, social performance has become a decisive factor in how real estate assets are evaluated, financed, and managed. Investors expect transparency not only in energy performance, but also in how companies safeguard tenant well-being, mitigate social risks, and ensure consistent service quality. Against this backdrop, tenant satisfaction has emerged as a critical datapoint, reflecting both the lived experience of communities and the operational maturity of the organizations that serve them.
Tenant satisfaction can be integrated into a far broader strategic framework than many might expect. Measuring satisfaction is an essential first step—but it only the beginning. As the real estate sector’s most essential stakeholders in social sustainability, tenants form the foundation of the business, and their experiences should guide social objectives, performance indicators, and long-term development strategies.
Data from tenant satisfaction surveys shows that just over 70% of residential tenants report being satisfied with their overall service experience that their landlord offers. The corresponding figure for commercial tenants is almost 10% higher. Differences between markets are substantial, often reflecting variations in customer orientation, governance, and facility management. For investors, high or rising levels of tenant satisfaction signal both lower social risk and strong operational control.
A component of social sustainability and risk management
The real estate sector is undergoing a structural shift in which social sustainability has become a financially material factor. As expectations from investors, lenders, and frameworks such as GRESB increase, the focus is expanding beyond environmental sustainability to include social aspects such as tenant safety, service quality, and trust. In this context, tenant satisfaction has assumed a central role— not as a soft value, but as one of the most reliable and forward-looking indicators of operational quality, risk exposure, and long-term value creation.
How tenant satisfaction is formed
Tenant satisfaction is shaped by service quality, not only in major service deliveries, but across the countless smaller touchpoints tenants encounter daily. Maintenance handling, fault reports, communication flows, contractor behaviour, and the general sense of care all influence how tenants perceive value. Satisfaction functions as a mirror of organizational performance. Simply put: satisfied tenants are a reliable indicator that a company is doing its job well.
Tenants build their perception of service quality by comparing what they expect with what they experience. Over time, these individual experiences accumulate into an overall judgment of service quality. For real estate and facility management, this means that tenant satisfaction is achieved not through isolated actions, but through consistently well-managed service encounters throughout the entire customer journey.
Closing the expectation-experience gap through tenant satisfaction surveys
Organizations that lack insight into tenant needs, expectations, and perceptions are forced into reactive decision-making. To move toward proactive and sustainable service delivery, organizations must systematically listen to tenants and measure their experiences. Tenant satisfaction surveys remain one of the most effective tools to achieve this.
By applying AktivBo’s method, organizations embed tenant satisfaction surveys into a broader strategic framework, creating a culture of continuous improvement. Survey results are presented in a way that is actionable for everyone in the organization, from operational staff to management. This structured approach enables organizations to anticipate tenant needs with greater confidence and allocate resources more effectively. It encourages learning across teams, helping to uncover best practices and build shared knowledge on the tenant experience.
Leveraging social insights for business impact
Within the GRESB framework, structured tenant surveys are a key tool for enhancing social outcomes, in turn improving operational performance and supporting financial results. When integrated into a strategic framework, survey data can support and evidence key social objectives by helping organizations to:
- Assess and measure tenant health and well-being
- Identify and mitigate social risks
- Understand community impact
- Monitor improvements over time
In practice, this means the points gained through TC2.1 (Tenant Satisfaction Surveys) and TC2.2 (Programs to Improve Tenant Satisfaction) can be significantly amplified when survey insights inform ongoing operations. A structured approach not only strengthens social outcomes within GRESB but also enhances the underlying operational quality that the framework seeks to capture—laying the foundation for measurable business results.
When leveraged strategically in this way, insights from tenant satisfaction surveys do more than support compliance or reporting. They directly influence retention, operational efficiency, and financial performance. When analyzing data from real estate companies consistently shows a clear link between strong perceived service and lower vacancy rates, as well as a positive correlation with higher Net Operating Income (NOI). These patterns hold across both residential and commercial portfolios. By systematically acting on tenant feedback, whether through GRESB-aligned initiatives or day-to-day operational improvements, real estate companies can strengthen portfolio stability, optimize returns, and convert tenant satisfaction into a long-term strategic advantage.
This article was written by Julia Pfeifer, Sales Manager, Charlotte Renström, Marketing Management, Martin Talme, CBO at AktivBo. Learn more about AktivBo here.