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India’s real estate industry has always readily embraced technology and the convenience it brings – yes, almost 100% of real estate firms (one-man, small, medium, big and gigantic included) have been thriving on MS Excel for decades now.
Jokes apart but the PropTech world has moved on from the Jurassic age most of us are still stuck in, meaning big rewards await the brave souls who can align all of Indian real estate to the latest version of PropTech.
PropTech and its Versions
PropTech,
short for property technology is the use of information technology (IT) to enable
organisations and people search and discover, sell, buy and manage properties. Just
like FinTech is about the use of technology in finance, PropTech employs tech
to address the growing needs of the real estate sector.
Growing
needs = Evolving Tech
PropTech Version
1.0 (1980 to 2000) – The PC days. Property Market Analysis (PMA) was founded in
London in 1982 to develop and sell the outputs of PC-driven property research. In
the construction technology world, 1982 saw the launch of Autodesk and CAD took
over real estate design. Argus - leading global provider of software for the
analysis and management of commercial real estate investments, was first
established in the mid to late 1980s. Yardi, CoStar along with MS Excel
dominated PropTech 1.0.
But these
software modules required heavy customization for individual clients and were
closed in nature, making them unpopular and exclusive to top players only. (We Indians
are thus very happy with MS Excel.)
PropTech
Version 2.0 (2001 to present) - While the internet connected PC facilitated the
growth of PropTech 1.0, PropTech 2.0 has been unleashed by open-source software,
free search and discovery platforms, ecommerce, social networking and the
multi-platform real estate world.
PropTech 3.0 (Currently transitioning) – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) led solutions for sales, rentals, interior decoration, building management, big data analysis, 3D assets, valuation and much more as new start-ups bring to the market new and innovative PropTech ideas.
Stuck in Reverse
India is a big country which is not defined by its few metropolitan cities. The real
estate market goes deep inland where a majority of the sector’s players are still
conducting most of their business using PropTech V1.0 tools, while scale-enabling
CRM software has become the norm for larger players in the metros.
Today, it is this version gap across India which is limiting universal and
transparent access to real estate functions, stunting sector growth.
Fill the Version Gap, Laugh to the Bank
Indian
PropTech players need to seriously ponder on some such questions to unlock the
country’s massive real estate potential.
Why not
sell real estate via an online platform using customer feedback instead of biased professional advice? (Facebook/ LinkedIn have created networks
that have a scale and global reach well beyond the capacity of any real estate
broker.)
Why not deploy
online rural networks for the marketing of real estate?
Why not provide easy access to opensource software to all Indian builders and brokers to allow a cheap entry to previously expensive technology solutions (real time inventory,
remote booking and online payment processes).
And, why not
distribute these SaaS products to smartphones, PCs and tabs via apps?
PropTech is designed to streamline and connect processes for participants in all stages of the real estate market, including buyers, sellers, brokers, lenders and landlords. As a nation on the whole, it is time we aligned ourselves to its latest version to truly unlock growth.