How Is PropTech Changing the Property Industry

Proptech has been around for a while but historically the industry has been slow on the uptake, Property Week’s annual ‘Power of Proptech’ survey shows attitudes appear to be changing.

Simply put, PropTech (or Property Technology) is the clever creation of new technologies developed by innovative start-ups to have a positive effect and improve the industry of Property Development, Sales and Rentals. With Global funding for these technologies rising 62% in 2017 to £8.5bn, we all need to start paying attention to them.

As we move into an ever more Digital landscape, PropTech is developing newer, faster, more immersive ways of doing things. For example, gone are the days when you would pick up a newspaper and read through the property section to find your new house. Chances are nowadays you would grab your mobile phone and head over to the Rightmove website or download their app and have alerts sent straight to your phone. Similarly, the days of sitting in a stuffy bank’s office and going through piles of form filling to get a mortgage are all but over, with clever algorithm based websites calculating our mortgage rates and acceptance decisions for us.

Advancement in PropTech has seen some really great start-up companies with innovative new technologies. Here are just a few examples of the most forward-thinking technologies that have evolved from so far:

 

Augmented/Virtual Reality

Sitting at home and viewing potential new houses right from your sofa. Augmented/Virtual Reality allows potential new homebuyers to envisage their new home without having to physically go to the location and be shown around it by an estate agent. Adding an additional layer of immersion for homebuyers, this technology is ground-breaking but still relatively unexploited, undoubtedly we will see it being incorporated more property marketing in the near future.

 

Minimal Fee Online Estate Agents

Websites offering to sell your house for you for a fraction of the cost of a traditional estate agent are able to do so using their big databases and audience sizes to directly advertise to potential buyers near you. Without the need for a large office and lots of members of staff, sites like Emoov and PurpleBricks can offer to sell your home for a minimal fee compared to bricks and mortar estate agents.

 

3D Printing

Being able to see and feel a miniature version of a new proposed housing development is a great way to showcase your brilliant new plans. Offering an extra layer to a professional presentation, 3D prints of developments could really take off and give you that slight edge over competitors. We are even seeing full-size homes being printed for a fraction of the cost of traditional building methods.

 

A Complete Hands-Off Process

In the future it is entirely plausible that a property company could use big data to find new building land. Combine that with blockchain technology to make the purchasing process easier and faster, print a 3D model of the new homes, and then use virtual reality and online websites to sell the properties on the internet and you’re onto a real winning formula. Other than a data manager and IT staff to ensure the process all runs smoothly, the job will be almost totally hands-off.

 

Making Rentals Easier to Manage

Being able to draw down and analyse only specific required data from lengthy contractual documents will make the rental process easier in the future for letting agents.

Similarly, using blockchain technology to split rent amounts will make paying landlords far more straightforward.

Here at Latch we like to keep an ear out for the latest industry news, helping our clients push ahead with the latest technologies alongside traditional marketing, we have the skills and expertise to blend these together and create property brands.

To chat to us email [email protected]

Sources:

workman.co.uk
medium.com
hrcrecruitment.co.uk
gpti.de
propertyweek.com