Ray’s Proptech Weekly #40
Subscribe to receive Proptech Weekly by email
Friends, Feudal Landlords and Commoners,
Last week’s newsletter was important to me. The purpose of writing about Proptech has always been about promoting the people behind the tech.
That’s why Inman News in the US is such a big deal.
Brad Inman has created a brand that rivals anything else in the world of real estate. A brand that is focused on the people and personalities that make up the industry.
This last week the great and good of US real estate and Proptech descended on San Francisco to attend the latest edition of Inman’s Connect conference.
It’s the only place you can get up close and personal with senior industry figures AND the latest start-ups.
While no longer a start-up (it’s very much an ‘up’), Opendoor was awarded Innovator of the year for a second year in a row.
It can’t be overstated how far ahead they are in the innovation stakes. Their ambition is infecting many on both sides of the pond.
Thanks to Opendoor, technologists are realising the value in AVMs (Automated Valuation Models) is in generating leads.
Zillow helps generate buyer leads, but Opendoor uses automated online valuation to generate seller leads. Far more powerful, and over 100 times more lucrative financially. IF your business model is set up to take advantage.
So who could ‘do an Opendoor’ in the UK? (That is where the bulk of subscribers are based)
Nested.com is obviously trying, with an full service agency spin on the concept. But there are two types of company that are well placed on the data front: the obvious property portals like Rightmove and the less obvious Deposit Protection schemes.
While Rightmove has an existing AVM and the consumer mindshare, its business model isn’t geared to monetise seller leads effectively. They’d have to drastically change agreement terms for their customer agencies.
Deposit protection schemes have no such conflict of interest. And even better they have one key advantage: rental data.
And not just any data. Deposit Protection schemes have REALISED rental data (as opposed to asking prices).
Why is rental data important? Rental yields are by far a better valuation metric than price per sqft.
This is why I’ve been quietly pulling together a lobbying effort targeted at the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to change the terms of their contract with the deposit protection schemes and allow them to release this incredibly valuable data (or at least sell it to the industry).
If Government wants to encourage private investment into residential real estate, they need the data to give investors confidence. With commercial real estate rental data is widely available. With residential, good luck finding any useful data sources.
Releasing this data to the market would be the biggest single factor in increasing investment into residential real estate. Drop me a line if you have any thoughts or would like to help.
One more thing:
When I started writing it quickly became apparent that Realpundit as a moniker didn’t resonate. So this last week I’ve transferred my writing to Medium.com/Proptech and renamed my Twitter handle to @RayProptech.
Seems an obvious naming scheme in hindsight :)
Please feel free to relay news, tips and comments @RayProptech
Rayhan’s PropTech Weekly XL
Upcoming Events
Inman Connect SF — 2–5 Aug — Link
SPD Insights — Big data and retail — 13 Sep — Link
PropHack — 15 Oct — Link
Rentberry wants prospective tenants to bid against each other for apartments (TheBillfold.com)
It’s articles like this that annoy me. The writer assumes that bidding on apartments will increase the price. It won’t. It’ll dramatically increase transparency and reduce the price. It’ll also increase the net amount in landlords pockets through efficiency. Above all Rentberry provides a process that’ll give everyone more confidence and reduce stress massively. That’s worth something. By the way, Apply.Property are doing this in the UK — and I feel so strongly that I recently invested (note the disclosure). Also in the space are Joinery.NYC. Here’s the link to the critical Rentberry article: Link
3D crosswalks to help people slow down
I don’t usually cover ‘built environment’ stuff, but this is just too ingenious not to share. Optical illusion at its most effective: Link
Büro North’s ground level traffic lights
One more built environment innovation, and again this is a doozy. UX work like this could reduce accidents and increase safety massively. And it’s just so pretty: Link
Clixifix raises £260k
Interesting take on the Fixflo model for construction: Link
Airbnb raising a reported $850m at $30bn valuation
While property reviews site Movem raises £200k from the crowd, the hotel company with minimal capex marches on: Link
