The real estate sector is an industry that is relatively stable and slow to react to changes. Therefore, it is no surprise that the industry has been slow with exploiting the technological advancements of the past years. But some real estate company are starting to look at other more technologically mature industries. Some of the technologies that they have started to apply in the industry will be discussed below.
Virtual Reality
Although virtual reality has been here for some time, the technology has only recently been applied in the real estate sector. Both consumers and business are starting to use customized virtual reality for property “tours”. One of the providers of 3D home tours is Matterport, they are using VR and videos to allow users to navigate floor plans in a digital manner. (Matterport, 2018)
Data management applications
Transactions in the real estate can take weeks to even months and entail a large amount of paperwork. Due to data management applications this process is becoming more and more efficient. The various people and institutions that are involved in the process, such as lawyers and banks, can transfer the required paperwork through land registries. Due to these applications and the cloud, the process is becoming more streamlined and digital, as even the signatures can be done electronically. (Ramella, 2017)
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is used in a number of ways in the real estate sector. Examples are recommendation systems when people are searching for houses on sites. Chatbots that can answer question of potential clients, therefore freeing up time for real estate agents. Or applications that help resident in their rented apartments with complaints that can be solved easily. (Mhitarian, 2018)
To conclude, the real estate industry is still in the beginning stage of technological innovation. We will continue to see the industry change, as the use of certain technologies is becoming more common.
Reference:
https://matterport.com/
https://blog.g2crowd.com/blog/real-estate/top-5-tools-help-real-estate-agents/
https://chatbotsmagazine.com/5-ways-ai-is-changing-property-companies-5d7db55f9a27
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/07/31/how-technology-is-changing-the-real-estate-market/
Hi Iris, thanks for your contribution! I really like the article and do see how the real estate industry is a very fragmented and still-offline market. This makes it harder, with an increasing demand in currently every major city in the world, to find a suitable place to live. Especially the part about virtual reality, making it easier to conduct house viewings remotely is an interesting development. I think the market dynamics would change in a way that through technology being applied in real estate, there is an even larger customer base for landlords and real estate companies to choose from. Don’t you also think that this will drive up housing prices even more? Or would transparency among customers regarding housing increase so they have a larger buyer power, and thus the rivalry among landlords would get more intense, driving down prices?
Any input from other students would be very interesting!
Nice post, Iris. I think this is a very interesting topic. I believe, that the application of these technologies in the real estate industry can improve the customer experience immensely. If I think back about how much effort it was for me to find an accommodation in Rotterdam, while I was still living in Germany, it would have been amazing to be able to view rooms digitally, and not having to travel the distance. Even if the technological realization of this application might still be a few years to go, I believe that it is of high potential for the real estate industry, on supply side, as well as on demand side.