Technology and data, there has been no better time than the present for the real estate industry to consider how they’re adopting technology and using data.
“The amount of data available to property professionals has risen steadily in recent years amid an increased adoption of technology, known in the industry as proptech. But despite the hype around the transformative potential of big data, the widespread use of the insights has remained a work in progress,” says Matthew McAuley Director, Global Research at JLL.
In a recent article, McAuley argues that the industry should put its focus on technology and data amid the pandemic. “From analysing rent-collection rates to monitoring crowds in malls and understanding space utilisation in offices, the pandemic has prompted more property industry players to use proptech to deliver real-time data outputs.
What we’ve seen around COVID-19 is more adoption on the hardware side where landlords have had to quickly re-specify buildings,” he says.
Decision-making around high-frequency data is in demand at the moment – especially as it relates to health, mobility, and space and storage issues.
For example, McAuley says, in offices, data has helped companies to enable contactless movement, tracking, and monitoring cleaning frequency. The benefits for occupiers, government, and investors are immense.
JLL’s recent Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2020 shows that technology adoption has helped many real estate markets boost their position in the ranking – but the majority have had trouble implementing new technology fast enough.
While the tech movement in real estate started a few years back, COVID has emphasised the need for tech adoption at a rapid pace.
Nick Ron, CEO of House Buyers of America, in a recent article argues that the goal for the entire real estate industry now should be to streamline and automate the entire process with technology to make it as painless and easy as possible for buyers and sellers.
Jeremy Kelley, Lead Director, Global Research, JLL said: “High-quality information that reflects fast-changing market conditions is invaluable during periods of market turmoil and many data providers covering niche property types have illuminated otherwise opaque market metrics.”