Over the years, we’ve become more familiar with the term Proptech, the fusion of technology and property management. We’ll hear it more and more because it delivers significant financial benefits to property managers.
Real estate is the world’s largest asset class, so real estate technology is often thought of as overlapping with financial technology.
Present-day digital real estate technologies could therefore include property management using:
- Digital dashboards
- Smart home technology
- Research and analytics
- Listing services/tech-enabled brokerages
- Mobile applications
- Residential and commercial lending
- 3D-modeling for online portals
- Crowdfunding real estate projects
- Organizing, analyzing, and extracting key data.
The History of PropTech
Before the rise of PropTech, most sales and residential listings were on print media and real estate offices. As the internet progressed, moving listings onto the digital media became a main focus.
The next stage of PropTech focused on making physical spaces more fungible, from holiday homes to storage spaces. A notable example is Airbnb, which has made it possible for property owners to rent out their property for part of the year.
PropTech 3.0 began after property managers and developers were experiencing difficulties with operating numerous sectors using completely unconnected solutions.
The pandemic brought about unprecedented changes that will have a lasting effect on how people live, work, and play.
Landlords around the world are responding to these challenges as well as tenant and consumer demands by merging physical and digital aspects of property management. Through the adoption of technology that enhances the brand experience, increases engagement with stakeholders, and builds a sense of community, shopping centres can remain competitive in our ever-changing world.
Gone are the days of supporting tenants with technology solely for collecting sales data.
In this rapidly evolving economy, tenant expectations about real estate are shifting. It’s no longer about price and location only – it’s about providing an experience they will sign up for long term.
Investors are sinking billions into new tools, apps, and solutions, and according to some accounts, 70% of all that investment has been in the last 2 years. And billions more will be poured into PropTech in 2022.
“According to a recent survey by MetaProp — a real estate-focused VC in New York—a whopping 96% of PropTech investors planned to invest the same amount of cash in 2018, if not more, than they did last year — Forbes article”
New proptech startups are targeting niches in real estate where little technology exists. Market opportunities keep popping up all over. Well established firms such as Zillow, Zumper, Homelight, Reali, OpenAgent, and Rentberry for instance are gaining significant marketshare in core services.
What Happens to Realtors and Property Managers?
Do we need Realtors anymore if proptech gets rid of intermediaries? It turns out that Proptech will empower Realtors, and property managers.
For agents and property managers, the first task is easy — understand what it is and then begin to explore relevant opportunities. The solutions appearing are better and more practical, so there is value for you in Proptech.
Ask yourself where you need help. Where are you not using technology? Consider whether your current processes are taking more of your time, and which Proptech solution might give you your time back.
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