Technology has gone beyond the disruption stage and is now being embraced by all players in the real estate industry, panellists agreed at the PropertyEU Innovation & Proptech Investment Briefing, which was held at EXPO REAL in October.
‘All the traditional property companies are ready for change and willing to cooperate with proptech companies to find innovative solutions,’ said Csongor Csukás, executive director of international property management, BNP Paribas Real Estate.
‘There is a spirit of collaboration now, we are seen as transformers and enablers instead of disruptors,’ said Guillaume Fiastre, managing director, Altus Group. ‘But change is still needed, as data are still locked in different databases, hard to analyse or to compare. We need to harmonise and integrate data and make them accessible to our clients.’
The technology is there, it is just a question of finding the right way to use it, he said. ‘From a very practical point of view, single data bases are useful for our clients. Having all data unlocked and centralised will enable decision-making and help manage processes quickly and smoothly. It makes a big difference if you can access the information you need anytime and from anywhere.’
Long-term investors need to know what products and services will be needed in future: ‘This is why we are interested in proptech,’ said Sébastien Chemouny, head of France, Allianz Real Estate. ‘We need to be able to fulfil any requirement from our customers. Technology is what might make a tenant want to stay in your building instead of moving, but at present it is difficult to quantify how innovation can drive returns.’
In a fast-changing landscape, property managers must be the ones who know what occupiers want, said Csukás: ‘The concern with automation and digitalisation is the risk of losing the human element, but real estate is and will remain a people business so property managers must combine technological advances with the human side of the business.’
Innovation is most evident in the office sector but it is also affecting the residential and hospitality spheres. The two are merging as customers want more flexibility, said Nakul Sharma, Founder & CEO, Hostmaker: ‘Before the rule was that for a 3 days’ trip you would go to a hotel, for 30 days in a serviced apartment and your home was where you live permanently.’
All that has changed and ‘homes are now a category in travel accommodation, so in future residential real estate will be designed for travel,’ he said. ‘The lines are blurring: we bring hotel-style technology and services to homes and 20% of the homes we manage are for stays longer than 20 days. Hotels have been running at full capacity in Europe, very few are being built and demand is growing, so there is a lot of overflow capacity that we can capture.’
Customers have the flexibility they want and so do the owners, who can maximise their returns and at the same time choose how much their assets can be used.
‘We are able to activate a property even in a difficult market like the UK at present, where rental returns have fallen some 15% and owners don’t want to liquidate their portfolio, but need help covering this period of uncertainty,’ said Sharma.
Demand is such that Hostmaker now pays people to go away, especially at peak times like Roland Garros in Paris or Wimbledon in London, encouraging owners to go on an all-expenses paid holiday because their homes are needed.
‘Having built a track record across eight European countries, we are entering a new phase in our growth,’ said Sharma. ‘We are advising institutions and we have a partnership with Marriott.’
