What Is Proptech—and Why Is It Reshaping Real Estate Forever? 

Property Technology or ‘Proptech’ is the application of all things information technology to support and help the real estate industry in the provision of its services to their clients. What that means is that technology, namely software, supports real estate teams buy, sell, and manage the data behind a property portfolio. 

Proptech refers to the software and tools that support the entire life cycle of the real estate process from initial prospect all the way to purchase, build, operation and sunset of a physical location. 

In the world of the internet, proptech tools operate mainly in either a SaaS or cloud configuration and are provided to clients on a licensed basis but some companies still use on premises setups where a local version of the software is run from inside the company. Regardless of the commercial model, the use of these tools is to ensure that data flows successfully from start to finish across all elements of the real estate service offering. 

Our personal experience of proptech is that Data is a huge source of competitive advantage. We have worked with many clients over the years who really understood the benefits of having clear, accurate and concise data that they could turn into strategic data and make informed decisions on. 

So how to find your way in the Proptech market as a user of the tools? 

The obvious starting point is to understand your own company’s involvement in the real estate lifecycle, are you touching all the various stages of the real estate process or just a few? There are tools of all shapes and sizes that cover some to all the lifecycle but like anything, some are better than others.  

For example – we worked with a Swiss Bank some years ago who had purchased what is called an integrated workplace management system or IWMS for short, to support the delivery of the facilities management component of their buildings. Their desire was to start with the FM component and then expand over to other parts of the real estate lifecycle, but their main failure was to only setup the tool with a data model aimed solely at the facilities management component.  

Fast forward 2 years and I heard recently they replaced this tool with a targeted solution just for the facilities management teams to use.  

Clients shopping in the Proptech market will find they quickly have a wealth of choice when it comes to software they can buy and use. If I were to give a couple of pointers, they would be: 

• Consider fully what the problem is you are trying to fix. Many customers fail to recognise the initial problem and get caught up in the whizzy, fancy looking user interfaces, and this often leads to scope creep. 

• Consider your data before any purchase, is it in a good state? Time and again we have started a mobilisation where the customer cannot confirm they are happy with their data. A fancy car runs very poorly when running on a lumpy tractor engine.  

• Stick to scope – as cool as IT platforms are, its always tempting to add just a few more problems for the tool to cover. We would recommend not doing this. Stick to the original scope and then once the core benefit is recognised, scope enlargement can take place. 

At All Going Wrong we have a view that Proptech is a great market with an expanding creator base making ever more innovative tools for the property industry. If you are a user of these tools, we can help you navigate the options and support your digital strategy for proptech SaaS tools. Contact us by the below link.