Real Estate Technology – Solutions Shaping Property Technology Industry

Real estate technology has been re-shaping the property market for quite some time. Known as proptech, or property technology, it leads the industry’s digital transformation.

With real estate, the change is significant. The industry is conservative, with many big players being around for even a century! Now, riding a wave of digital disruption, new companies started to change real estate.

This shift towards cutting edge tech includes buying, selling, or managing real estate. Consumer market and commercial real estate (CRE) are both affected by proptech.

In 2020, real estate technology further shaped the property market for everyone. Real estate technology is changing the industry.

1. Big Data

The real estate industry benefits from big data in many ways, including:

• Optimisation of property management and maintenance
• Analysing trends on buying and selling property for a given area
• Predicting value trends and ROI analysis
• Gathering real-time and historical data

For the consumer property market, this means insight into current and forecasted values. It may impact how people buy and sell homes. Meanwhile, investors can make better-informed decisions even for specific neighbourhoods.

Commercial real estate investors and owners can use big data for managing a property. Examples include optimising office space utilisation, also known as hot-desking). Others entail parking management, tracking equipment issues, or conference room booking.

2. Internet of Things

Collecting large datasets is now possible through the internet of things (IoT) capabilities. Be it smart homes or office management systems, connected devices improve space management. It also lets us understand how we do it.

For property users, managers and investors, the benefits from applying IoT in real estate may include:

• Convenience – IoT gives users greater control over utilities as well as our environments.
• Cost optimisation – data from IoT devices, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing, impact essential decisions. These are critical in ensuring cost optimisation. For office buildings, considerable savings can justify their investment.
• Comfort and lifestyle – space and equipment optimisation improves comfort of use. This applies to work or living spaces.

The advantage of this technology is its affordability, convenience, security, and financial viability.

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Making use of big data collected via IoT devices is possible with algorithms. We use AI and machine learning for dataset analysis and creating comprehensive reports.

Proptech companies use these algorithms to search for patterns in user behaviour. This predicts trends that then impacts property investments.

For home buyers, this may include recommending properties based on preferences and value. Possible solutions can also include chatbots integrated with CRM systems. These offer a better experience for property buyers.

CRE investors will see further automation of office space management driven by AI. Another use of machine learning includes foreseeing ROI, impacting investor’s commissions.

4. Blockchain and security

Privacy and security are considerable proptech concerns given our quantity of collected information. This entails daily activities and digital behavioural patterns. Blockchain technology is a potential solution, through its popularity in securing cryptocurrencies.

This can combine with Building Management Systems (BMS) to improve property contract security. Proptech systems would collect and secure data and prevent data leaks.

5. Virtual Reality

As the internet is a home buyer or investor’s go-to source of information. But oftentimes, images, plans, and projects are not enough to convince them to make a buy.

Virtual and augmented reality is a popular medium for virtual property tours. With advancing and more accessible devices, this trend will continue to grow. One such advantage is users can take tours around finished, ready-for-sale projects. They can also view planned investments, only accessible via 3D models.

According to experts, using VR increases a property’s value, while lowering operational costs.

6. Drones

Drones are another industry disruptor, with exciting applications in the real estate, improving:

• Site monitoring
• Deliveries
• Building inspections

The latter may be a huge money-saver for big construction sites. Some companies already explore using drones for performing building inspections. This includes US-based company Volaero and a Canadian firm, Industrial Skyworks.

Drones can also apply to site visits. This gives buyers and investors further building insight on surroundings, among other factors.

7. 5G

The more the investment, the more data connected devices contribute to the system. Information varies from small data samples. An example is a sensor managing light in the conference room. A more advanced instance would be video formats from surveillance cameras.

5G is a wireless technology standard allowing faster data transfers with lower latency. In practice, 5G will be 100x faster than 4G networks used around the world.

This is a proptech breakthrough, as this could connect thousands of IoT devices. As 5G will also be more energy-efficient, it will lower the cost of running these sensors. This further justifies the investment’s viability.