Super-fast elevators, security systems, doors with automatic face recognition – technology is already changing commercial real estate. Now proptech joins the “hard” solutions, which will revolutionize the entire industry, including the way of working with the client, and this is very good news for those who will be looking for attractive office space in the future, even in the immediate future.
From paper to AI:
The real estate industry is still made of paper. Excel printouts and shelves with documents dominate. As in the 90s. Therefore, until recently, a client looking for space to rent had to wait several days on average for a response. And that is why the real estate itself is now waiting more than a year to be let again. The REDD Index shows exactly 371 days that offices are waiting for rent.
The revolution on the Polish market was introduced only by the REDD platform and it was a revolution in the software area.
“Technology in real estate is entering the data area faster and faster. The era of agents who defended their know-how at all costs at a loss for the functioning of the industry is coming to an end. This is the main change – data that will allow you to find a place for business faster,” explains Piotr Smagała, Managing, Director & Co-Founder, REDD.
The growing role of technology as an element supporting the work of real estate advisers is also forecasted by Tomasz Buda from Savills, responsible for innovations in the company. As an example, he gives an industry that is at the other extreme of development in Poland in terms of the implementation of new technologies – banking.
“Fintechs have shown that almost the entire bank can be transferred to the network. Proptechs will do the same with us, in commercial real estate. I can see that our area is becoming more and more competitive and we are looking for new methods of reaching customers, the digital ones,” says Tomasz Buda from Savills.
First AI, then an agent:
As with banks, people will not completely disappear from the real estate industry, but just as we no longer withdraw money at the counter, we will not look for commercial real estate sitting only at the agent’s desk. People will be needed, but for something else.
“One thing will never change – the most important thing is information. Basic data on real estate should be publicly available and reach the client as soon as possible. The role of the agent is to enrich this information with his market knowledge and advise at the stage of selecting a specific place to suit the needs of a given organization. A machine can calculate a lot, but the human factor is still extremely important and such advice will be invariably valuable,” says Buda from Savills.
However, in order to move from being competitive in the area of knowledge to competing for the quality of customer service, ever greater data transparency is needed.
“We have a lot to do in this area. We have over a dozen billion data about buildings. Artificial intelligence can analyze them many times and quickly, depending on the needs, but there are countries where it is much easier to obtain such data. If we go further here, the revolution in the industry will go faster,” explains Piotr Smagała, Managing, Director & Co-Founder, REDD.
