Propteq Europe 2016 Recap: The In's and Out's of the Future of Real Estate

PropTech has been one of the hottest buzzwords this past year with quite a few startups entering the market. Setting attended Propteq 2016 and met people from all across Europe and learned besides the recent developments also about the differences of the Continental and UK real-estate market and local adoptions.

Our co-founder Johnathan Teh co-hosted a session about “The Workspace” amongst other industry speakers, brokers, startups, angel investors and venture capitalists. Attendees came to exchange thoughts on PropTech, RETech or CRETech - everything related to how technology changes with real estate. The conference had four tracks to cover all bases: PropTech; Commercial; Investment; and Residential. And because Propteq had an ‘uncon’ format with multiple moderated discussions we were able to dive right into varying discussions. 

We have the following four takeaways to share from Proteq 2016:

1. Transparency

Technological disruption of an industry is often a result of a providing more transparency to all parties involved. Real-estate is one of those industries which is traditionally known to be less transparent and driven by relationships and black books, and information arbitrage has made many people wealthy. As information is generally made more accessible to landlords and brokers, tenants have a harder time making informed decisions. In addition to the need of moving towards a model of sharing and accessibility of knowledge between landlords and tenants, a further level of personalization is required. This change of thought is long overdue, properties should no longer be considered assets. Each piece of property should be considered with it’s own unique features and strengths and weaknesses. By doing so, properties will no longer be shared with the masses but more targeted to find the right tenant for that space. And nowadays with the increasing call by consumers for customization and niche experiences, the real-estate industry needs to follow.

2. Data Usage in Real-Estate

If you are not on the data train, you need to jump on and travel full steam ahead. Everybody says we need more data (which is true) but more importantly we need to first determine for what purpose we need that data. Data enables us to make better decisions and can reduce transaction costs. In addition, given the call for more transparency, data is a great tool in your arsenal to show the buyer or tenant the statistics of a neighbourhood or space, building additional trust and credibility as numbers tend not to lie.

3. Startup and Technology in Real Estate

This was one of the most heated discussions at Propteq 2016 as bigger, more established firms like JLL, Colliers, CBRE and the likes, want to stay innovative and embrace new technologies. But there is currently a lot of noise as many new startups and solutions are popping up daily, saturating the Proptech ecosystem. And bigger players are paralyzed by choice, unable to choose the right startup to work with. On the other hand, startups need to learn how to position themselves and differentiate their product or service from their competitors to grab the market share. If and when a mutually symbiotic relationship does blossom, startups need to learn to remain reliable as the biggest asset provided by the larger firms is the brand name and accompanying reach and credibility in the industry.

4. The Change of Workplace

With the rise of coworking spaces and the idea of being a digital nomad in our current society, do we need an office space anymore? The consensus of the attendees and speakers at Propteq was that the office is here to stay but businesses will continue to crave more flexibility, especially in response to adapting to the changing needs of employees. One extremely important factor to consider is the human desire for social connection and interaction. This notion was also supported by studying millennials who like to be independent but are happier to work out of an office rather than a home. Although this desire exists, there is still a major challenge for the real-estate industry and businesses to overcome. On average 50% of offices are underutilized meaning that at any given time only half of the seats are used causing a financial long term burden especially for startups with leaner budgets!

So what does the future of the real-estate market look like? Data driven technologies and data science applications will continue to be developed by new startups and used by larger companies potentially at a more rapid pace. The use of artificial intelligence in the next few years will be sought after within real-estate but it will not remove the role of the agents/brokers who will still be the ones building relationships and creating that human experience people yearn for and trust. But with the help of both AI and data, every party will be able to make more informed decisions at a more efficient pace. 

If you have additional takeaways from Propteq 2016, we’d love to hear from you.

About the digital real estate space in Germany: