It is well known that a finite-dimensional output space implies limitations on the systems properties, like observability and detectability. In this paper we extend this result for infinite-dimensional output spaces, under the condition that the output operator is relatively compact. We show that if this holds, and the system is exactly observable in finite-time, then the inverse of the infinitesimal generator must be compact. By means of an example we show that this result does not hold for exact observability in infinite-time. Using the Hautus test, we obtain spectral properties of the generator for this case. A consequence of this result is that if the system is exponentially detectable, then the unstable part of the spectrum consists of only point spectrum with finite multiplicity.