The real estate sector should brace itself for a technological revolution, because it has been lagging behind in innovation but will have to catch up quickly in the next few years. Experts gathered for PropertyEU's future of logistics & e-commerce briefing at Expo Real agreed that change will happen much more rapidly than expected in the sector.
'Investment in property technology will increase, because Europe is a long way behind the US and real estate is one of the bottom industries in terms of innovation and tech investment,' said Matt Partridge, founder and CEO of Infabode. 'More money will flow into the industry, and big companies will start taking it seriously too.' Currently only a fraction of the $2 bn (€1.8 bn) invested in real estate tech start-ups globally is being spent in Europe.
The impact of such changes on the property sector will be significant, as Europe catches up with the US. ‘We are bringing our integrated platform to Europe, which allows direct interaction with the vendors,’ said Richard Gerritsen, regional director for Continental Europe at Yardi Systems. 'As technology advances, more middlemen and more roles will inevitably disappear. Europe is just at the start of a digital transformation.'
There is also likely to be consolidation in the currently fragmented data provision sector, as some current innovators will be taken over by larger companies. Another big trend ahead, said Paul Wessels, director of Ventu, is the capacity to turn data gathering into useful and productive information.
Click here to watch an interview with Matt Partridge of Infabode at Expo Real
