By Arvind Kumar Kadam,Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Zaasna
Digital technology is changing every industry, and real estate is no exception. It’s no surprise that with increasing startup interest Proptech has become a buzzword. By definition, “It’s a collective term used to define start-ups offering technologically innovative products or new business models for the real estate markets.”
The major impact of proptech can be felt across the four main verticals of real estate: Investment and Capitalization, Property Administration, Project Development, and Capitation and Leasing.
Investment and Capitalization
A new space, proptech in this area focuses on providing new financing choices to commercial property investors and buyers.
- Crowdfunding – Increasingly popular globally, crowdfunding platforms help potential investors raise funds and reap returns.
- Fintech – Fintech start-ups are looking at real estate as potential revenue generator. They accept the burden of payment in lieu of monthly instalments from users. For home rents, mortgages and so on, instalment payment forums can promise security.
Property Administration
Start-ups in this space provide the means for property managers to execute their duties/jobs effectively, while simultaneously broadening the area of their work.
- Drones – Builders are deploying drones in innovative ways for a combination of services such as marketing properties and remotely organizing building inspections.
- Resident associations and security – Property management start-ups such as Apartment Adda help maintain the latest records of residents and tenants, enable ticket management, space utilisation, and vendor management. Solutions such as Digitalgorkha and MyGate also provide added safety.
- Smart homes – Easy availability and reducing costs of smart connected devices are making smart homes a popular choice for security and convenience.
- Third-party handymen – Services such as Housejoy and UrbanClap have become a go to platform for property owners looking for handymen – plumbers, electricians etc. for the convenience and reliability they offer.
Property Development
Property development is a high investment and effort intensive area. Startups in this space are focusing on streamlining collaboration, creating marketplaces, and simplifying user experience.
- Architecture and building – End to end project management, digital records, and data analytics to make informed decisions are some of the areas that proptech startups such as qwikspec are contributing to.
- Interior Design – Startups such as Livspace are offering design inspiration to customers and even collaborating with developers to offer custom designs based on individual floor plans.
- VR and 3D – Leveraged in various area of property development, VR and 3D technologies can render a smooth, effortless viewing experience.
- Materials marketplace – These start-ups act as a forum to bring together contractors and suppliers to would-be buyers.
Capitation and Leasing
Mainly focused on residential property, proptech in this area is mostly mature.
- Listing websites: Companies such as Magicbricks combine the convenience of providing useful information to the readers with brokers’ listing on online classifieds.
- Advisory: Platforms such as Zaasna are streamlining the buying journey for the consumer helping them make informed decision and supporting the sales cycle.
- Brokerless listing: Meeting customer demand to eliminate middlemen, startups such as NoBroker and Nest away are directly connecting buyers and sellers.
- Sales, marketing and support functions: The start-ups in this space provide services in the support functions such as marketing, CRM and sales.
As the real estate industry in India shakes off the lows of the past years, the future winners will be the ones who adopt proptech to distinguish their businesses from the nordinary.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
