Fintech is popular nowadays with the booming development of electronic payments and virtual banking; Real estate technology (PropTech), though lagging behind, is also quietly revolutionizing. Its influence is spreading through the real estate and construction industries on every levels, with innovations such as Blockchain for land information, building information model (BIM), Internet of Things (IoT) for property management and with other applications.
PropTech, as the name suggested, is a combination of “property” and “technology”, coupled with big data, artificial intelligence, aerial photography technology, virtual reality (VR) and Blockchain, etc.. Depending on what kind of technology and which state of the real estate and construction cycle, applying PropTech can smoothen or assist in different processes throughout the cycle. For example, virtual reality can help residential buyers to view the house remotely; artificial intelligence can be used to analyze financial data of real estate; through establishing an intelligent valuation system (AVM) and adopt Blockchain can process and record real estate property ownership; modular housing can speed up the construction and reduce cost.
Since 2013, the global investment in PropTech companies has amounted to about 7.8 billion US dollars, of which more than 60% is invested in the Asia-Pacific region. It is expected that Asia-Pacific’s PropTech industry will raise about 4.5 billion US dollars annually. Though I believes that the development of PropTech in Asia-Pacific is still running behind Europe and the United States, especially in terms of business model innovation, however, China and India have huge populations and real estate markets, which are actually very conducive to the growth of PropTech companies.
Leo Lo 盧銘恩
CEO of Fonto Holdings and Founder of Asia PropTech