The need to use technology to revitalize the property industry is now becoming more crucial. This is brought forth by the constantly changing digital landscape and new consumption patterns of various markets.
According to Jordan Kostelac, Head of Proptech, JLL Asia Pacific, property technology is now the trend as it improves transparency, efficiency, and productivity across all facets of the real estate sector. “Property technology takes into account attitudes, movements and transactions which leads to the development of technologically innovative products and/or new business models for the commercial side as well as the construction side of the real estate industry, and even for buildings and cities of the future. The use of digital technology results in faster and more convenient transactions, more cost-efficient processes and allocation of resources, and less time spent on viewing property listings.”
Property technology is also deemed vital as the future of work continues to innovate in cross-collaboration (co-working spaces), advanced technologies and networked solutions and open innovation.
This is also why the rise of property technology industry is inevitable. Proptech start-ups are now aggressively aiming to bring innovation into every aspect of the real estate industry and rethinking existing systems. The value of these proptech start-ups on the future of the real estate industry has been identified and recognized by Propell-Asia.
Propell-Asia is an industry first collaboration between JLL and Lendlease, two of the world’s leading international real estate companies. Propell-Asia aims to provide proptech start-ups with a unique opportunity to validate their products and test for market fit by engaging their businesses, assets and network. Propell-Asia targets proptech start-ups in the region with a clearly defined product that can be applied to any of these four categories: Property Management , that aims to improve procurement and user experience through predictive maintenance and robotics; Real Estate Transactions which is targeted to enhance automation to achieve greater efficiency in leasing and sales including use of blockchain technologies; Construction Management, that disrupts the design and construction of the built environment to enhance safety and productivity outcomes during construction; and, Data Collection, Data Science and Analysis which will improve decision making for occupiers, investors and managers by applying artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques on data that is both internal and external to commercial real estate.
Developing property technology products that are sure to disrupt the real estate industry and force it to evolve is a lucrative endeavor. With the help of Propell-Asia, JLL is hoping to potentially up the game for real estate industry players- and take a chunk of the USD16 trillion Asia Pacific commercial real estate market that offers boundless opportunities.
As for the Philippines, Kostelac says the country can attract more proptech players into its market as long as clearer regulations and a more defined roadmap is put into place. Head of Research and Consulting Janlo de los Reyes agrees. “There are big challenges to the development of PropTech here in the PH: infrastructure, slow internet connection and lack of legislation. But once we get past all that, the technologies that JLL is supporting can really transform the way we do our business here.”
Kostelac reiterates, “Here in JLL, we like to say that we are not a real estate firm – we are a tech firm that works in real estate. There is no other company that does what we do for the advancement of property technology. And we are excited to bring all of that here in the Philippines.”
