Almost all the interactions people engage in these days have a digital footprint. Our research shows that the first step towards home buying starts with a Google search but the online journey is interrupted when they land upon thousands of unverified open listings from the incumbent proptech players, which adds to buyers’ confusion and pushes them out of the online process in the eventual purchase transaction.
Some of the challenges in the real estate industry is an inherent fragmented nature in which the order of operations take place. Tradition demands interactions with multiple middlemen for simple physical visits that leads to a kind of chaos. None of the existing proptech companies, IPCs or brokers have all developers and all projects accessible for the buyer to visit. However this process is what the buyer is most comfortable with. The paradigm shift of the journey to online mode may be more beneficial and feature rich, even safer but like all other tech adoptions it’s one that takes time.
With the application of technology to the real estate industry, the opportunities are endless. To put an end to the existing data asymmetry with verified listings directly from the developers and have complete price and process transparency is a long-time but unserved need. Real estate is the world's largest asset class and the technologies capture this momentum.
The new innovations in the prop-tech sector
The current wave of prop-tech is driven by a range of new technologies. There are disruptive ideas like artificial intelligence and democratic ideas like instant gratification through online products like virtual site visits. The attempt is to reduce friction and increase the focus on the essential concept, which is not only the buying of a home, but removing the stress from the process and adding joy to the journey of a monumental purchase.
With the virtual visits where one can experience a potential home from a lazy bed and a phone to using cutting edge 3D visualization to give them an immersive experience, Drone photography and augmented reality have proved to be a great tool for under construction projects helping the buyer to get a deeper understanding of the properties. Instant site visit bookings and video conferencing with the relationship manager at any time brings a sense of comfort in the process. It literally brings the homebuying experience to the phone and at a buyers’ fingertips.
