The Future Of Real Estate Industry Is Already Upon Us — Here’s Why

Nobody expected the pandemic to usher in the future of real estate, and that too in one fell swoop. Perhaps only in hindsight can one truly appreciate the extent of our reliance on digital and cloud-based PropTech solutions. PropTech solutions such as iEstate have taught us how to digitally differentiate.

In the aftermath of the deep recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, PropTech became a lifeline for companies scrambling to stay in business. It also transformed the way of conducting business for real estate companies that survived and even thrived. This was unexpected, but then again, every crisis presents an opportunity for improvement.

As for the real estate industry, it faced dual difficulties. On the one hand, entries to office spaces, hotels, malls, and sports and entertainment venues got restricted. On the other hand, along with it rose a social wave of isolation where people were afraid to even step out of their houses. Job losses, evictions, and remote working led to mass de-urbanization. As part of this recent trend, the world saw people vacating their apartments and residential properties in prime areas and relocating to affordable single homes in the suburbs.

Reports say that “between 2009 and 2020, the national rental vacancy rate decreased by 85%” in the United States. And about 25% of the US employees are likely to be working remotely from this year onwards. Hence, successful property managers were smart enough to reshuffle their focus on single-family homes, warehouses, data centers, and commercial spaces.

There’s no getting around the fact that digital transformation on the cloud is a key enabler for the real estate industry. It helps property firms harness the power of digital to increase sales and business development while cutting costs and increasing operational efficiency.

For instance, going cloud-based is a no-brainer these days. It helps accelerate and streamline critical business processes like site development, construction, property sales, leasing, rental, subcontracting, and facility management. Furthermore, you use billing and payment automation to speed up manual-heavy workflows and free up your resources to add strategic value.

Let’s look at some of the other major benefits of digital property management

Cloud

You can provide a 360-degree property view in the virtual world for your customers. This has been of tremendous use since giving them a physical tour is out of the question. It also gives customers an immersive experience — facilitating ‘anytime, anywhere’ accessibility.

Affordability and accuracy are the two pillars of automation. So, when you cut out manual processes and use automation to speed up tasks while making them more accurate, you also get the benefit of lowered TCO.

Also, traditionally, data is stored on physical servers that cost big bucks to maintain and upgrade. However, by using cloud-based software, you become more flexible and cost-efficient by centralizing your database — with hassle-free backup and updates.

Just as importantly, all this valuable data is accessible in just a few clicks for your sales, marketing, or operations teams to use and improve various parts of the business.

Artificial Intelligence

There are no spoiler alerts about the key role that artificial intelligence will play in helping enterprises do better business. Everyone is already talking about it. And future-ready real estate companies have already incorporated AI-based technology to run or improve key processes like sales/marketing, HR, business intelligence, and financial planning.

Hyper Automation

Now more than ever before, property managers need to accelerate the digitization of their operations to create new business models and become customer-centric. As customers are getting used to instant information, engagement, and action, the need for hyper-automation in this sector has become rather urgent.

Hyper-automation avoids the inaccuracies and delays of manually collecting property or customer data. Once the data is received, it uses AI & ML power to transform the raw information into intelligent business insights. It also frees up property managers from performing repetitive tasks and allows them to focus more on strategic ones.

Blockchain

Plus, there’s also blockchain technology, which has helped reinvent the wheel of real estate. Property managers can build a centralized digital repository of records instead of using multiple resources to manage multiple touchpoints. Blockchain technology also allows real-time processing and verification-based accessibility — making the overall property management system more transparent and user-friendly.

Autonomous Tech

As you may know, autonomous technology is already upon us. Self-driving vehicles and digital assistants have proven that intelligent machines are possible. In property management too, the power of AI, ML & NLP can be furthered to analyze data deeper and achieve incredible accuracy.

Autonomous applications can help create a more self-sustaining property management system. While the technology hasn’t fully matured in this space, in the near future — these systems will think and act like humans without getting bogged down by associated flaws.

One can’t ignore the repercussions of COVID-19. Everytime the world begins to open-up, a new variant sends us scuttling right back to where we started from. With 2022 off to a hesitant start due to new variants and the imminent fears of lockdown, there’s no telling whether people will return to the cities to resume their jobs, education, and businesses. In fact, many employees now prefer to work remotely indefinitely, with several companies offering at least a hybrid-working model. Maybe, that’s why a study showed that the market value in the US had increased 7.78% over 12 months.

What’s key is that property managers need to gear up for the unexpected. First, it’s important to think about a long-term strategy — despite the chances of more unprecedented events. The fact of the matter is that digitalization is here to stay. It’s why real estate managers must look to invest in technology transformation.

It will help automate repetitive tasks to avoid staff frustration, be compliant with best industry practices, and deploy centralized solutions that lower their business risks. As earlier mentioned, each crisis brings about a new platform to change. For real estate managers, they need to get onboard a digital platform to expect this!

Future of Real Estate Industry — Virtual Round Table: Watch on-Demand Webinar

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