The End of Real Estate ‘Silos’ -Welcome Surveillance

I remember working to put together a Collaborative System in 2000 on a good old Lotus Notes Platform (those were the days IBM was striving hard to buy this piece to compete well with Microsoft on office solutions).

The system primarily feature was of Distributed Disconnected Architecture putting together remote Cement Manufacturing sites with limited connectivity to work on common system for supply chain planning.

Lack of Electricity/No high speed internet(we were still in world of GPS speed data 2G was a dream then) the implementation was a challenge while we were doubly sure this was an answer to all limitations we have at the deployment site.Thankfully VSAT deployment etc came to rescue.

Back to 2021, I see we have similar challenges in Real Estate space where ‘Silos’ of asset have developed over a period of time.Real Estate Silos are much more complicated as they are spread around the globe with different category of usage stretching from office to retail to storage to hospitals.

Early generation technologies like SCADA helped to bring Industrial Technologies to Real Estate.Advent of HVACs/Smart Elevators etc got things moving on real estate controls.While these were great they all came with their own systems and technologies ,operating in their own spaces.System Silos created.

Advancement of Real Estate investments brought forward capital to create more assets in dispersed geographies .While these were well attended by property/asset managers they were still sitting on their own island of data.These assets were intelligent but not adaptable.

2013 onwards Tech stacks started working on Behavioural Surplus with more predictive power.Real Estate sector welcomed the phenomena of Customer Engagement by implementing different functional systems around Tenant Billing/Service Charge Management etc.

Assets got great turn around from their occupiers they never had witnessed something like this before.

The inter generational layer of technology has created an Array of possible action around Real Estate to consume action in RE on an integrated platform .Think of an Asset Manager owning 40 Million Square Feet of distributed Real Estate Asset in different geographies-Can he learn from one asset and implement the learning to the second or third one?

Prop Tech Platforms of future are in a great position to come forward and break the ‘Silos’ what generation of technologies gave to the RE industry.

I foresee the future of Technology in Real Estate working in below areas

1. Continuously monitor the Behavioural Surplus-Consumer behaviour is changing over a period of time.The way Real Estate has been bought or consumed is changing.Combining the operational data can help to predicts this early.
2. Vertical Architecture -Some call it overlay while I call it Vertical with all Real Estate platform configured at a basic unit level of an ‘Asset’.What you invest on is an ‘Asset’ this is where profits are created by controlling actions around it.Prop Tech Architectures need to be highly service oriented to integrate multiple systems/data exchanges and user interactions (these all in RE situation are very widespread).
3. Economic Models-Geographical boundaries are blur now with investments stretching from Developed to Emerging Markets.Key decision making in Real Estate investments will be more driven by predictive Economic Modals which are generated using Machine Learning/AI combination after few years.Crunching earning/occupancy/service charges/insurance cost/cap rate etc will becoming far more easier with Tech platforms involved
4. Value Platform :-Real Estate stopping at investment and asset maintenance is going to be thing of past.Making end consumer of Real Estate successful will be the key differentiator for RE players.Commercial Real Estate has been working quite at length to offer this to their occupiers while this has to go beyond this category and become offering for Residential/Industrial/Storage etc too.Brick and Click modal of offering digital platform along with assets will increase lot more confidence of consumers.Think of occupiers able to monitor their consumer behaviour surplus from these platforms !

The convergence of Capital and Technology around Real Estate has brought forward a great opportunity to unlock potential of the sector.

If you are Prop Tech Expert/Real Estate Investor interested to discuss the possibilities of Real Estate Future reach out to me on sachinjoshi29@gmail.com