By Srishti Dhir
With rising urbanization and digitization in every sphere of life, technology has become a driving force to boost our economy. This rapid adoption of technology has also opened new prospects in the Indian market with promising potential for disrupting traditional sectors. Speaking of the traditional industries, real estate in India has seen a major transformation in terms of technology in the recent years. This can be evident from the emergence of ‘proptech’ companies across the top cities of the country.
As the Indian real estate sector is poised to reach $1 trillion revenue by 2030, significantly contributing to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), proptech has become a major catalyst helping drive this growth.
According to the latest media reports, the proptech market in India is anticipated to increase at a rate of 9.6 percent from 2021 to 2025, reaching the $100 billion benchmark by 2030.
How PropTech Is Sparking Real Estate Revolution?
The rising demand momentum in the realty sector, specifically in the residential real estate, has spurred the growth of PropTech unicorns in India. Currently, there are already multiple unicorns in the proptech sector including some household names such as NoBroker, Livspace among others.
These proptech companies use technologies like artificial intelligence, Big Data analytics, machine learning, virtual reality, and blockchain to transform the way properties are purchased, sold, rented, financed, and managed.
Considering the crucial role played by proptechs in India, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) launched a $100 million proptech fund, Spyre Proptech Venture Fund, in February in collaboration with several Venture Catalysts and Neovon – a consortium of developers who have committed to contributing one-fifth of the corpus (total money invested in the fund).
The fund has already received commitments for around 35-40 percent of its total. The fund is planning to eventually end up with a portfolio of approximately 35 startups.
Emerging PropTech Trends in India
There are several emerging proptech trends that have gained momentum in the past few years and ushered a wave of tech-driven real estate. Check out some of the most popular trends impacting the realty sector in India.
These platforms leverage advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence to provide valuable market insights and predictions to real estate stakeholders.
By analyzing the bulk data, including property prices, demand-supply dynamics, demographic trends, and consumer preferences, proptech companies are empowering investors, developers, and policymakers across the country to make informed decisions.
- IoT-enabled Smart Buildings
Smart buildings use IoT-enabled devices, sensors, and systems to improve and maximize operations, comfort, energy, security, etc. The use of physical items, such as sensors and systems, to collect and process data from a variety of activities is known as the Internet of Things (IoT).
Property management companies and building owners can use this collected data for analytical monitoring and proactive management.
- Property Management Solutions
PropTech has also transformed property management practices in India, enabling landlords, property managers, and residential societies to streamline operations, enhance tenant experiences, and maximize returns on investment.
Through cloud-based property management platforms, one can automate tasks such as rent collection, maintenance requests, tenant communications, and financial reporting. This will improve the overall efficiency, reducing administrative burden, and ensuring better asset performance.
- Space-as-a-service (SpaaS)
This is an effective business model wherein landlords offer services to tenants that help them make better use of the space. Its primary goal is to switch from asset ownership to the monetization of free spaces in commercial real estate.
Some of the best examples of this may include biometric entrance systems, surveillance, fittings, etc. As these facilities are very easy to implement, many coliving and coworking spaces are gaining more and more popularity among millennials.
Another segment where proptech services are being highly used is offering property tours with the help of AR/VR technology. With the use of this technology, buyers can look at several property listings without having to deal with the inconvenience or cost of travel. Even while VR and AR technologies have been around for a while, the COVID-induced pandemic has given them more traction.
Virtual reality gives you the ability to present 360-degree views of your house, while augmented reality lets you stage it in various different ways.
- Customer Relationship Management
Almost in every sector in India, customer satisfaction is the number one priority for businesses and real estate is no different. Many Companies are now emphasizing quick gratification to deliver the best customer experience.
The realty sector has also been utilizing proptech to meet client expectations as it recognizes the need of conducting business with a customer-centric approach. There are several CRM software that can help you in following up with leads, managing communications, and tracking your overall success.
Conclusion
To sum up, PropTech is driving the real estate revolution in India by harnessing the power of technology to innovate, disrupt, and transform traditional practices. PropTech is changing the way real estate is bought, sold, developed. It is laying the groundwork for a more effective, transparent, and sustainable future.
(The author is Srishti Dhir, Founder at Hub and Oak, and the views expressed in this article are his own)