175 years of craftsmanship and innovation

Maintain, improve and preserve. That's what it's all about at Verhoeven Property Improvers. The maintenance and renovation specialist stands for 175 years of knowledge and expertise, on which diverse clients in the real estate sector rely. At the same time, Verhoeven Property Improvers works on innovative solutions in the areas of technology, sustainability, process management and occupant satisfaction.

Verhoeven Property Improvers was founded in 1846. Over almost two centuries, the company grew into what it is today: a specialist in total maintenance, renovation and preservation of existing buildings. From homes to hospitals and from hotels to listed buildings. Clients include municipalities, housing corporations, owners' associations, investors, building managers and contractors. Verhoeven Property Improvers operates from three offices: Amsterdam, Arnhem and Holten.

Craftsmanship, sustainability and innovation

People and the environment are paramount at Verhoeven Realty Improvers. "Our staff is our capital," says commercial director Alex Stegink. "We invest heavily in that. With good training and guidance, but also by giving employees the opportunity to do their work with passion. At the same time, we are firmly committed to sustainability and innovation. We reduce our CO2 footprint and we work as much as possible with solvent-free agents and reusable materials. A good example of this is the improvement approach to the L-flats in Zeist. In order to meet the sustainability ambition, one of the requirements was to replace the existing glass with triple glazing. This would mean that hundreds of still good flap windows, in which no triple glass fits, were removed. A shame, of course, and not acceptable from a circular perspective. On our advice, the valve windows were therefore fitted with FINEO glass, a pane of only 8 millimeters thick with the function of triple glass. This saved us a lot of waste."

Innovative cloud platform 

Sustainability and innovation go hand in hand with effective maintenance and asset management. Stegink explains, "Many decisions are still made based on gut feelings or maintenance moments that were thought up long ago. This usually does not benefit the future-proofing and return on investment of real estate. We support our clients by collecting relevant data and turning it into practically applicable information. We do this with a distinctive, innovative cloud platform focused on real-time digitization of real estate in combination with measurement data from active sensors. Up-to-date data and modern dashboards provide insight into future maintenance costs at the residential, district and/or city level. In time, we will also link infrastructure issues to real estate. For example, how does heat stress in a neighborhood affect the maintenance of the home and living environment?" The cloud platform also provides an asset management module. Here the customer obtains insight into the various strategies determined by the property owner at the asset, district and city levels. Data on neighborhood composition (CBS data), energy labels, the BAG and mutation rates can also be found there. Stegink: "With this data we can develop models that provide insight into future maintenance. Naturally, we also determine optimal routes in the neighborhood to perform maintenance in order to contribute to fewer CO2 emissions."

Own installation branch

Each year, Verhoeven Vastgoedverbeteraars makes hundreds of homes more sustainable and energy efficient, also with a healthier indoor climate. Stegink: "We are one of the few maintenance and renovation companies with our own installation branch. This is in line with our vision to have all expertise in-house. This increases the quality and efficiency on our projects. Especially in a renovation, transformation or preservation project, architectural and installation improvements go hand in hand. These must be seamlessly coordinated. With us, this is done integrally within one company. That offers advantages. The lines are short and we can switch quickly."

One team

Stegink continues: "Integrating processes is becoming more commonplace throughout the real estate chain. Result-oriented collaboration, process management, resident support and social return are the key concepts of today. Also with us. We are chain partners of several housing corporations, with whom we are increasingly working together programmatically. Based on their portfolio strategy, we think along in maintenance scenarios. As one team with the housing corporation, architect and subcontractors, we implement the chosen scenario. Openness, trust and joint responsibility for planning and quality are central to this. But also the social aspect. In many projects we provide resident supervision and look for opportunities to involve the neighborhood."

Future

Integral and sustainable cooperation is the future as far as Verhoeven Property Improvers is concerned. "And in this we are going further and further," says Stegink. "With various chain partners, for example, we are working on products and tools to start up and execute maintenance, renovation and sustainability projects even faster. Only in this way can we meet the enormous sustainability task in the Netherlands."