Housing is a fundamental human need. In all aspects of housing and real estate there are countless use cases where companies and private individuals need and process data. myky has increasingly focused on the sustainable refurbishment of residential buildings in recent months, which is why we are using this example for this article. The real estate sector is a key factor for Switzerland in achieving its CO₂ targets. According to the Federal Office for the Environment, real estate is responsible for almost a quarter of today’s greenhouse gas emissions and offers great potential for improvement. Customer surveys conducted by myky show that refurbishment is a complex task for owners that they will only tackle if it is economically and ecologically sustainable for them. Key challenges include a lack of data on the current condition, the ideal approach, and
reliable projections of realistic funding, as well as the costs of refurbishment.

There are many sources of data associated with real estate. In addition to public data sources, which are being continually expanded, specialized data providers offer information on all properties in Switzerland. Other possible sources include data from companies that work with real estate data for their products and services, such as banks for granting mortgages, insurance companies for buildings insurance or house­hold contents insurance, energy suppliers, as well as tradesmen, building contractors, and architects. These stakeholders have an isolated view of the property, which is often based on the time of the last transaction/interaction with the homeowners and usually only includes “reliable” data for their respective topics. As soon as these companies start working on new, “broader” use cases, they often lack a reliable data basis. For example, information required for sustainable refurbishment — such as on the heating system, building volume or location — is often outdated, incomplete, and not centrally available or usable.

Homeowners usually have the best, most comprehensive access to the “right” information about a property. In practice, this information is often filed away physically in conventional folders at present. myky’s vision is to provide homeowners with a platform for them to store information about their property digitally and securely, which they can then use to help with specific applications such as refurbishment. With the myky property dossier, the idea is that an “intelligent assistant” gives owners valuable information and shows them opportunities and risks associated with their property.

In today’s networked world, it is essential that data platforms do not operate in isolation, but can interact seamlessly with other systems and partners. An important pillar of myky’s property dossier is that data relating to the property is shared — under the homeowner’s control and only with the homeowner’s consent. This means that not only does the homeowner share data about their property as required, but also that the companies the homeowner interacts with provide data for the property dossier. In the context of sustainable refurbishment, homeowners can share information on the current condition of the building (heating, insulation, etc.) and their refurbishment plans with banks, tradespeople, building experts, or their build­ings insurance company. In return, the companies can share information with homeowners about their mortgage, the value of their property, their insurance cover, or even specific offers for their home ideas. Ideally, for example, tradespeople would work interactively with homeowners directly in separate project areas of the myky property dossier to develop a suitable, financially optimized refurbishment project.

In an era where data is at the heart of so many organizations, security and trust in the management of that data are critical. This applies in particular to private information that owners collect about their home. Homeowners and companies alike are faced with the challenge of comprehensively protecting this information, while at the same time taking advantage of the opportunities offered by modern technologies and making well-founded, data-based decisions. To achieve this, myky uses a platform set up by NNH Holding. This platform was implemented on behalf of 19 cantonal banks together with ti&m as general contractor and implementation and operating partner. NNH’s vision is that many companies like myky will be able to use the NNH platform to effi­ciently and securely implement cross-company customer journeys involving housing. The NNH platform is based on powerful standard services from the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for central components such as data processing and analy­sis (including BigQuery), system integration (including Apigee) and security. Important design criteria of the platform include:

• Using open standards and established products
• Benefiting from the innovative power and functional scope of a leading cloud solution through the consistent use of Google products
• Implementing best practices such as data storage in Switzerland, customer-managed encryption and zero trust, including between the platform components
• Defining API-based data products instead of a rigid real estate reference data model

Our next use cases also focus on advanced functions for controlled data sharing, enabling data-based deci­sions, and flexible and secure interactions between companies and private individuals. For a sus­tainable home and thus a contribution to achieving CO₂ targets