The wider property industry has been one of the last industries globally to be shaken up through innovation. Until now.
We only need to look back at the music, retail and finance industries and how they have changed over the last decade. Companies like Spotify, Amazon and Xero have disrupted and changed the way we consume, interact and do business.
It is quite exciting that we are starting to welcome new tech and innovations that could have the same impact about how we do business in property, but it can also be quite scary.
The landscape of PropTech is huge – there are thousands of startups out there looking to add value across different disciplines of property and real estate including investment, finance (FinTech), design and construction (ConTech). A lot of companies combine several areas of expertise so it can be confusing about what products and services can assist your business.
One of the main concepts that we see in PropTech is the unlocking and visibility of data. The question is - how is it being utilised across the leasing journey to make better, quicker, and more robust decisions?
Simply - truth. Data presents truth and allows professionals access and visibility to it in a way that can substantiate ideas and expand the knowledge base quicker than ever. By sharing this with our clients, Industrious Property is able to provide more knowledge, better decision making, and therefore creating extra value in property assets.
Anecdotally its said property managers spend 70% of their time looking for information rather than actually carrying out the work required with the information. Property experts can do more with the time they have if they spend less time looking for things and have more time using the information.
Smart property platform Re-Leased built in New Zealand has empowered property experts to easily view and take control of their properties through the presentation of data. They provide an interface and hub for you to view all the real-time relevant workflows in your properties and present accessible ideas from data to be actioned to carry out the task at hand.
We're fascinated about how PropTech intersects across the commercial property leasing journey and how this can enhance the experience tenants, landlords and property professionals have finding suitable commercial accommodation.
The journey starts with marketing and search for space, negotiation of commercial terms, fit out design, occupation and ongoing management. There are solutions out there that bring innovation into each step and are making the process simpler, easier and more enjoyable for all stakeholders and most importantly the end user – the tenant.
The leasing journey starts with the ambition to move into a new space. Your business could be going growing, consolidating, expanding into a new area or improving the brand image and culture.
This step is a great experience to understand what the business needs and start dreaming of the move. It can be hard to visualise space if it doesn’t exist, and even hard to interpret 2D images. The blank canvas is a great concept but we need the artists to tell the story.
With the advent of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, and the efficiency of creating the imagery we can see the artist’s vision come to life.
It can happen through concept plans that come to life with 3D modelling (more on that below), or through 3D capturing of as built spaces so we can walk through the virtual space without leaving the office.
Matterport and Floored are companies that can capture and create 3D experiences so potential tenants can visualise what the new office will look and feel like. For landlords and professionals this is a great way to get tenant excitement levels up.
With the access to data visibility at the forefront of negotiation it brings up to adage that knowledge is power, and data is the knowledge.
For Industrious Property, we move closer on the negotiation table adding more value in the transaction to both landlords and tenants. We are able to bridge the gap in information and price disparity.
What is also exciting is we are also seeing smarter ways to negotiate and execute commercial contracts. With companies like DocuSign we can remove the long paper-based negotiations and horse-trading to save time through signing and executing on the go.
BIM (Building Information Modelling) is the digital model and representation of the physical built asset. Architects across the industry are using BIM to create new buildings and fit outs into existing buildings.
A BIM model can be exported easily to software solutions like Enscape to create beautiful 3D flythrough of spaces, so it can provide stakeholder transparency and visualisation for tenant buy-in of the design and getting to yes faster.
The BIM model is the architecture and engineering industries single source of truth through the whole design and delivery process. This allows all consultants and contractors to work in collaboration so there are less bumps on the road to completion and handing over to tenants faster.
The journey continues past the move in day. Good property management is necessary to create a great experience throughout the lease period.
Things go wrong in properties and having end-to-end systems like Tapi, a Wellington based maintenance startup utilising artificial intelligence, mean we can track jobs from (pre-)problem to solution in quick-time all the while keeping tenants up to speed with the process and timelines.
Utilising PropTech gives Industrious Property more time to maintain relationships with tenants and add value to assets.
One thing that will never change is having good peopletake us through the journey. With PropTech, the journey gets more exciting,efficient, and allows us to create beautiful spaces quicker.
There are PropTech companies across the globe that are looking to replace real estate agents in sales transactions with A.I orself-managed platforms – this may work in some areas but commercial leasing is a relationship focused industry where these relationships add value and insight.
This is also the case with commercial property managers. Industrious Property has a customer (tenant) centric approach to managing assets. Leasing is just as much about starting a good relationship than finding the perfect space. Doing both is what we strive to achieve for our tenants.
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