Cleansing Grosvenor’s historic data to enable smarter estate management.
WHAT: A comprehensive data cleansing and governance project to support the rollout of a modern property management system across Grosvenor’s estate portfolio.
WHY: To ensure high data quality and integrity across a historically rich estate, enabling efficient operations and better-informed decision-making.
Addressing the data legacy of a historic estate
With a legacy dating back to the 18th century, Grosvenor faced a challenge familiar to many historic estates: a vast quantity of data accumulated over centuries, stored across disparate systems and with inconsistent quality. As the business prepared to implement a new property management system (PMS), it became clear that the quality of existing lease and asset data could undermine the benefits of digital transformation.
““We needed a new management system, one that was fit for the modern day.””
A modern system demands modern data — complete, consistent and reliable. Simply porting legacy data into the new PMS would compromise the very efficiencies the technology was meant to deliver.
From sample audit to full-scale data cleanse
An initial audit of a 2% data sample revealed the scale of the problem. While income data was largely reliable, lease information lacked the required accuracy and completeness. Recognising the need for robust data governance, Grosvenor’s senior leadership approved a full cleanse of records covering nearly 3,000 properties.
This large-scale effort had to meet a tight timeline to align with the PMS implementation, requiring a partner with deep expertise in both data and property.
“We needed people with strong data skills and superb project management capabilities,” said Bax. “In the end, we chose Remit because they have never let us down.”
Designing the right approach
Remit worked closely with Grosvenor to identify 40 critical data points that would be essential in the new system. Each data field was defined with precise formatting standards, and rigorous validation processes were put in place. A system of cross-checks helped flag anomalies early, preventing issues from being compounded later in the process.
At peak, a 14-person Remit team worked from a secure data room within Grosvenor’s offices, reinforcing the importance of the project across the organisation. This visibility helped embed a culture of data accuracy throughout the business.
The fact that Remit Consulting was able to do this proves that our model is both scalable and flexible.
Efficiency, accuracy and unexpected insights
On average, each team member processed around 10 properties per day. Document retrieval times from Grosvenor’s archives fell from 48 hours to just five minutes, a gain that not only accelerated the cleansing process but also laid the groundwork for future operational efficiencies.
A system of quality circles enabled continuous review, ensuring that any team falling short of the benchmarks would have their work reprocessed immediately.
“It was done incredibly efficiently, and with forensic precision,” said Bax.
In the process, the team uncovered colourful relics of the estate’s past — lease clauses contingent on the death of the Prince of Wales or prohibitions on piano playing after certain hours — demonstrating the unique nature of managing historic assets.
Tangible financial and operational benefits
Immediate value was realised through the identification of unbilled service charges and back rent, as well as anomalies in break clauses and tenant details. Structural weaknesses in lease drafting were also identified, providing an opportunity to improve processes going forward.
Remit’s experience across thousands of leases led to the development of an optimised data input workflow, where the order of data collection contributed to improved accuracy from the outset.
Despite the project's pace and scale, it was delivered on time and within budget. The outcome was more than just a cleansed dataset, it was a foundation for sustained data quality and governance.
“Those 40 pieces of information now have to be captured every time a new lease is granted,” said Bax. “We’ve got a shiny new data set, and the tools to keep it that way.”
““We needed people with strong data skills and superb project management capabilities. In the end, we chose Remit because they have never let us down.””
For more information on our data auditing services, contact Elijah Lewis at Remit Consulting