Proptech is the collective term used to describe innovative products or new business models developed to enhance the real estate industry’s ever-evolving digital landscape.
By analysing consumer behaviour, technological advancements and big data, proptech aims to streamline processes in the real estate industry – this could include digitally facilitating unique workplace experiences, offering advanced data and analytics capabilities for real-time feedback or to help property teams purchase, sell, and manage their assets.
A successful proptech ecosystem aims to build a strong, prosperous and efficient property sector by offering new investment opportunities and the ability to anticipate the needs of clients across all facets of the industry.
What are some examples of proptech?
By using big data to the real estate industry’s inefficiencies – many of which highlighted when a large part of the sector was forced online during the coronavirus pandemic -proptech creates innovation solutions to traditional problems.
The term can span both software and hardware, with proptech including 3D printing, data visualization, augmented and virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Blockchain – the same technology powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies – also has the potential to transform real estate sector by digitising and accelerate the investment process.
Using blockchain technology can drastically reduce the time and associated expenses required to execute financial and investment agreements.
Updates to the digital ledger are automatic and the ledger is programmed to be 100 percent secure and tamper-proof, empowering every participant in the transaction to securely create and share the same data, removing reliance upon attorneys and other such parties.
Deeds of trust, equity agreements, loan terms, regulatory compliance documentation, and other transaction data are all recorded in the blockchain ledger. Thus, blockchain is ideal for documenting payments and financial records for transactions.
Is there much in Australia?
Proptech currently contributes 2171 jobs to the Australian economy, according to the 2021 Australian Property Technology Map.
This number is tipped to grow, with a number of new proptech startups frequently entering the market.
Last month, Sydney-based proptech startup Pathzz partnered with CBRE to deliver a new customer analytics product to market for commercial property.
The product applies advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to a stream of mobility signals and a wide range of other descriptive data sets, making it possible to gain a high-level of customer insights – something previously difficulty in the commercial property sector.
CBRE’s head of retail analytics Matt Copus said Pathzz said the technology was exciting as it allows an analysis of everything from an individual business to a comparison of an entire region.
“Pathzz empowers our clients to understand their own customers in unprecedented detail, but we can also get the same insights across brands, competing locations, acquisition targets, development sites, city precincts and beyond.” he said.
“It provides insights on consumer profiles, shopping habits and demographics, allowing our clients to create rich profiles on the type and volume of people who visit any location in Australia and map how these trends change over time.”
Brisbane-based proptech company Hindsite Industries is transforming how education is handed down on construction sites through rapid shift to cloud computing and the adoption of wearable devices.
Hindsite’s knowledge management platform enables users to participate in live remote mentoring and access transferrable micro-learnings, with the company recognised as a finalist in the Lord Mayor’s Business Awards for ‘fast growing startup’.
