Over the broad sweep of history, information has been integral to the real estate business, and that information was most often slow information. Only in recent years has fast information emerged. The implications of the rise of fast information for the property markets and all property market participants are profound, yet too little appreciated.

Among the many reasons that information is critically important to the property discipline are:

•  Information access and reliability determine relative market efficiency, strongly influencing the prospects of creating above-market alpha returns.

•  Property is the context in which information is created and consumed.

•  Companies engaged in various aspects of information are major tenants for commercial spaces.

•  Information technologies represent a disruptive innovation that may