Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa May 2016 | Page 41

always been data driven, it’s been nearly impossible
to aggregate and analyze that data at scale from
ERP systems and spreadsheets. As a result, drawing
portfolio-wide insights requires hours of manual data
aggregation and a team of analysts.
Commercial owners and brokerages need to harness
real-time portfolio and market data to succeed. They
can gain a competitive advantage by making better
decisions, reducing portfolio risk and operating more
efficiently. They recognize that this data mine is still
untapped.

3

Increased Mobility

CRE is a fundamentally mobile industry.
Leasing agents spend more than half of their
time in the field, with little to purpose-built mobile
support for their businesses.
Professionals are beginning to ask why there is no
dedicated mobile technology for the CRE industry,
especially when other industries have enjoyed similar
support for years. You only have to look to the
residential real estate industry to see mobile tools for
brokers, owners and buyers. So why not commercial
real estate? The last 24 months have brought about
swift change, with a wave of CRE mobile apps hitting
the market. CRE professionals will soon be able to
run their entire leasing business from anywhere at any
time.

Professionals are beginning to
ask why there is no dedicated
mobile technology for the CRE
industry, especially when other
industries have enjoyed similar
support for years.

4

The Consumerisation of Technology

As technology becomes a part of our daily lives,
there’s an expectation of ease for all of our apps.
Whether built for a consumer or a business, there is
little patience for clunky software that takes months
to integrate and learn. Sensible software — whether
to hail a taxi or to manage your leasing business — is
becoming the rule, not the exception.
The core CRE software platforms were built
decades ago, and it shows. They do not meet the
expectations of today’s users, and CRE needs a new
www.reimag.co.za

generation of technology tools that deliver elegant
user experiences and simplicity.
Many new companies and technologies have begun
to bridge the gap between the tools and the problems.
As a result, those new breeds of CRE tech companies
that combine deep domain expertise with modern
software expertise are building modern sets of tools
for the industry.

Biggest Areas of Opportunity

Opportunities for innovation using technology
abound across the real estate industry. Some of the
biggest near-term opportunities for innovation are:
• Property Management: Several companies are
already competing for dominance in this category,
most offering software that helps property owners
and management companies oversee and easily
track commercial real estate assets. Industry-wide
adoption is still sub-10 percent, though, so lots of
opportunity for growth remains.
•
Research
and
Analytics:
Traditionally,
commercial real estate developers would hunker
down with teams of analysts using HP calculators
and gathering demographic research to evaluate
an investment opportunity. Today, open data
initiatives in municipalities across the country
— combined with creative needle threading by
software developers — is changing this landscape,
and much of the data is readily available via
monthly SaaS licenses.
• Listing Services/Tech-Enabled Brokerages:
Contrary to the incumbents in the residential
market, which are predominantly media
businesses generating revenue from advertising,
a real opportunity exists for tech-enabled
commercial listing services that could level
the playing field, acting as marketplaces, and
replacing the less efficient relationship-driven
model that still persists today.
• Mobile Applications: By their very nature, real
estate professionals are on the go, pound-thepavement types. Brokers, landlords, appraisers
and developers are constantly running around
visiting properties. One can assume that many
of the most successful applications serving this
market will have a healthy and robust mobile
component.

RESOURCES
Forbes
MAY 2016 SA Real Estate Investor

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