REIT ASIAPAC
Outlook
HOW WILL PROPTECH ADVANCE IN SALES , TRANSACTION , ASSET MANAGEMENT ?
Proptech funding reached a new peak of US $ 8.86 billion in 2019 . Post pandemic will see more sophisticated tools as competition intensifies and funding increases .
By Patrick Ma Director of Listed Securities and Research , Admiral Investment Limited
Proptech started after the 2000s , following the dawn of the Internet era , as customers went online to search for real estate information and became more adapted to online transactions .
As the demand for digital news and real estate e-commerce starts to rise , the early-stage portals were similar to online activities and transactions in other areas of e-commerce . And so , it is no surprise that the mainstay proptech businesses that emerged at the time were online portals and aggregators for real estate markets , such as Zillow and Trulia in the US and Propertyguru . com and Lianjia . com in Asia .
From mid-2010 onwards , the emergence of high technology , such as big data , artificial intelligence , and cloud computing started another wave of developments . These technologies have propelled proptech from the “ low hanging fruit ” of aggregators / marketplaces with a consumer focus to more sophisticated applications that focus on the demand of not only consumers but also businesses . One example is the adoption of virtual reality ( VR ) and augmented reality ( AR ) in real estate marketing , which allowed marketers to bring the “ experience ” of a real estate product to prospective customers without being limited by distance .
As the potential of proptech application expands , investments in proptech have risen in tandem . According to CB Insights , proptech funding reached a new peak of US $ 8.86 billion in 2019 . For the first eight months of 2020 , amid the coronavirus pandemic , the new fundings for proptech were at US $ 5.22 billion .
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