Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa February/ March 2020 | Page 9

PROPERTY ADVICE
Using big data in real
estate investment
Q
A A
How has the use of data changed
real estate investment? More
specifically, how have data-driven
models changed relationships
between tenants and landlords?
BEN SHAW
CEO of HouseME
gents, oft-renowned for their take on a market, or
ability to compare and assess properties quickly
– based on years of experience – are beginning
to see increasing value in taking advantage of big data.
Big data in real estate is becoming a more prominent
factor for service providers, as they compete for clients
who are comparing property solutions. algorithms and insurers are catering for more bespoke
policies based on how well they can understand an
exact property’s location, security, features and value.
For property professionals, benefits to the use of
big data (high volume, high velocity, high-variety
information that is processed at scale to enable insight)
are growing in importance. Predictive analytics and
IoT (Internet of Things) devices assess critical risks for
maintenance and assist in pricing negotiation based on
trends. Valuations are estimated using machine-learning Beyond marketing, tenants are also already
harnessing big data to better compare of properties,
using pricing tools, deposit quantum or standalone
feature comparisons. HouseME’s products incentivising
tenants to contract – for example its DepositFREETM
offering – are seeing excellent traction as this trend
takes off.
Landlords take advantage of technology tools such as
HouseME to assist in pricing rentals, and mitigate their
collection risk by taking out a guarantee on their rental.
Impact of tech on
landlords & tenants
Q
How has tech impacted the renting
and leasing of properties and is it safe?
Should users be vetted, if so - how?
ALEXANDRIA PROCTER
Co-Founder DigsConnect
A T
ech has completely transformed the renting and
leasing of properties in that it completely democra-
tises the process. For both landlords and tenants (or
in our case, students), there was a ridiculously constricted
bottleneck in finding a place to stay, or finding a tenant.
A few people were the gatekeepers in that scenario and
everyone else had to pass through on their authority,
but now with online property marketplaces, tenants can
choose from literally thousands of options that best suit
their needs, budgets and preferences. Landlords can also
be pickier now and get the perfect tenant that suits them.
This brings me to the second great aspect of
technology in property, and that’s vetting users. I firmly
believe that the old way of doing things is outdated and
irrelevant. On an online marketplace, users can vet, verify
and review one another, meaning that the community
self supports. Everyone is instantly on better behaviour,
and upping their standards, if they know they will be
reviewed by their peers.
At the end of the day, the world is going digital, and you
can either fight it, and stay stuck in the past, or embrace
these wonderful innovations and embrace all the hugely
positive effects they will have on the world. That being
said, there are some things that tech is really good at, and
tech should be used there, but there are other things that
humans are good at, and there you use humans.
We’ve found that there’s a perfect balance between
tech solutions and human assistance that strikes the
right chord with our users. For example, when it comes to
vetting our users, we use a variety of tech-based tools, but
only for the purpose of assisting our on-the-ground team
of property verifiers. This results in more properties being
verified faster, resulting in a safer platform for everyone.
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020
7