PropTech – the evolution of the real estate industry

May 2021

PropTech, short for Property Technology, is used as a collective term for the digital transformation of the real estate industry. It describes a wave of technical innovations in the real estate industry that focus on optimizing the way people analyze, plan, build, rent, buy, sell, use and manage a property.

Why PropTech? The traditional real estate economy has some drawbacks. It is limited in its supply, has lengthy rental and payment processes, and suffers from a lack of automation and flexibility. PropTech companies try to tackle all of these challenges with innovative approaches.

PropTech evolution
The World Economic Forum in Davos divided the PropTech scene into three categories: PropTech 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.

PropTech 1.0
This generation was marked by the growth of online advertising sites. It all started in the 1980s with the invention of personal computers. Various real estate market analysis companies were formed that produced a large amount of real estate data. This wave ended in 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst. At the same time, real estate agencies were shifting their markets to the Internet.

PropTech 2.0
Advances in computing made the development of complex transactional environments faster and more accessible. The use of data analysis and virtual reality enabled the real estate market to offer better and more specialized services to clients.

While the first wave consisted mainly of established companies that went online, the second wave saw startups that are mainly active in the commercial, residential or mortgage sectors.

PropTech 3.0
New technologies offer more opportunities to optimize the real estate market. Innovations in the financial and legal sectors allowed the real estate industry to improve the transparency and fluidity of their operations with security mechanisms. Big data, AR and VR, 3D printing and cryptocurrencies will create opportunities to advance the real estate industry into the future.

You can find an overview of PropTech solutions of the third generation at https://proptechmarket.net/loesungen

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