Real estate smiles back

Real estate has an image. Dark suits, thick files, meetings that take longer than a planning application. In 2019, UPSI-BVS, the professional association of the real estate sector, wanted something for the generation that isn’t there yet: young real estate professionals up to 35 who want to network with their peers and with the people running the sector today.

We came up with the name, drew the logo and built the website. YUB: Young UPSI-BVS. Short, the same in every language, and with a logo that looks back at you.

Take a good look at the emblem. The square and the triangle are buildings, the building blocks of the sector. The arch underneath connects them: the bridge between young and classic, between those just starting out and those who have already put up a tower or two.

And together? Together they look at you. Two eyes, a wink and a smile. An emoticon, for a generation that talks in emoticons. Serious business, but not too serious.

A logo has to work on a badge and on a roll-up banner more than two metres tall. The emblem is simple enough to stay legible when small, and strong enough to stand on its own when big. So on the roll-up it simply stands alone, without explanation. No need: it’s already smiling.

The website carries the logo into the design. Deep blue and mint, with the building blocks of the emblem popping up as graphic elements: a square here, a triangle there. Everything works just as well on a laptop as on a phone between two meetings.

The site explains what YUB is, who it’s for and how to join, with an events calendar, the YUB Academy, a library and a page for every activity.

YUB organises ten to twelve events a year across Belgium, in Dutch and French, with an annual international real estate mission as the highlight. Every event gets its own photo gallery. If you were there, you find yourself. If you weren’t, you see what you missed.

A young professionals’ network has a built-in problem: everyone gets older. So in 2025 came YUB Plus+, for those past 35 but not yet ready for the dark suits. In 2026 the YUB Academy followed, a training programme of its own in small groups. The site simply grew along.

UPSI-BVS and Major Tom have worked together since 1999. That’s longer than the youngest YUB members have been alive. Over those years we made websites, annual reports, a network for young professionals and a golf tournament together: ImmoGolf is a UPSI-BVS organisation too.

When you’ve worked together that long, you no longer need to explain how it works. Only what needs to smile this time.