For anyone in the real estate sector, PropTech represents an exciting new development that promises to revolutionise an industry that has, to date, remained slow to leverage the latest technologies. It has the potential to drive true digital transformation, streamlining the real estate market in countless ways, while bringing innovative solutions to a variety of existing problems.
But what will a real estate market driven by PropTech look like? And what kind of technologies are available today? Here, we take a look at five ways the PropTech revolution will change the real estate market for investors, and how this exciting new frontier will develop in the future.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
For real estate investors, augmented and virtual reality property tours look set to revolutionise the early stages of any deal. The technology is quickly evolving to simplify and streamline property viewing experiences. VR can facilitate comprehensive tours of any building, even enabling tours of building still under construction, allowing investors to get a feel for the property from anywhere in the world.
AR on the other hand, is changing the way real estate investors interact with properties in a variety of useful ways. Augmented reality provides the ability to visualize a range of information on portable devices in 3D. This can include planning wiring or plumbing lines in new builds, for example, or something as simple as furniture layouts or space planning in existing buildings.
Property Management Apps
For anyone with investments in the rental market, managing a large portfolio of properties presents a variety of challenges. Not only can multiple rent payments be difficult to manage, but issues surrounding building maintenance, resident experience, and incoming/outgoing tenants can very quickly become a real issue.
Property management apps such as this, however, are aiming to streamline the entire process and provide access to a range of tools from one, centralized hub. Residents can be engaged in real time to solve issues before they get out of hand, building maintenance can be organized from within the app, and rent payments can be tracked. Additionally, lease renewal notices can help you maximise ROI by ensuring your units transition seamlessly.
Blockchain
The buzz around blockchain technology seems to know no bounds, and of course the real estate market has a huge range of potential applications. Blockchain based smart contracts have already been tested, essentially disrupting the entire industry by streamlining property searches, speeding up pre-release due diligence, ensuring smarter decision-making, and managing cashflows.
What this means in real terms is a 100% electronic property sales process that increase security and entirely negate the need for paper deeds. Autonomous systems automatically record transactions which are impossible to manipulate, and transparent terms are established to everyone involved in the transaction. The bottom line? Speed of transactions and major reductions in real estate costs for investors are pretty much guaranteed.
GeoLocation
If there’s one rule in real estate, it’s location, location, location! So naturally, geolocation tools are going to solve a whole host of problems for investors. Geolocation apps attempt to take large amounts of data about a location and transform it into useful insights that contextualize any given property in its surroundings.
Companies such as Walk Score are already using this kind of data localization to provide metrics on how easily an area is to navigate by car, foot, and bicycle. It also includes information on local amenities, parks, and schools. Other advancements in geolocation include geofencing, a technology that allows investors to ringfence specific areas of potential; and hyperlocal ad targeting that can provide information on local audiences spending habits and lifestyle choices.
If you are moving you can also use an online change of address service. The idea behind the technology is that you can setup your home and update your addresses in one place. SlothMove has pioneered this in the UK
