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What Is Proptech?

Proptech is the term used to describe the application of IT and platform economics to the real estate sector. Proptech, or property technology, aims to make transactions in the real estate industry more efficient and secure, as well as reducing paperwork and speeding up transactions.

Examples of successful proptech companies include household name companies such as Rightmove and Zoopla, which were pioneers in the proptech industry.

What Is the Purpose of Proptech?

Proptech companies such as Rightmove could be seen to simply be digitizing the real estate market. However, the truth is much more complicated and important. Proptech companies are affecting how we all experience and extract value from real estate.

Traditionally, the real-estate industry did not focus on the consumer experience and the end-user was not prioritized. Proptech has reversed the situation, putting the focus on the consumer and shifting the balance of power within the industry.

The Development of Proptech

Proptech came into existence following the dot-com boom, with residential real estate becoming an early adopter of proptech by enabling buyers and renters to search and shop for property online.

The next step for proptech came around 2008, when companies such as Airbnb helped to make physical spaces more fungible. Over the past few years, proptech has focused on AI and big data, and the COVID-19 pandemic saw proptech develop even further.

In today’s market, the ‘walk through’ has become essential to those in real estate, so developers have invested heavily in augmented reality technologies, which they use as a sales tool. Augmented reality technologies allow potential buyers to ‘view’ a property before it has even been built, making off-plan developments much more inviting.

What Are the Uses of Proptech?

Proptech is a broad category that includes property management tools – such as smart home technology and digital dashboards – as well as research and analytics, mobile apps, listing services and tech-enabled brokerages, 3D-modeling for online portals, crowdfunded real estate projects, and shared spaces management.

The organizing, extracting and analysis of important data from long and complicated rental, mortgage and legal documents is another area where proptech has made improvements in the industry.