Technology has rapidly risen up the agenda across the built environment over the past few years. This means different things to different people: it could be the upgrade of computers, the impact of a start-up, or the use of machine learning. Proptech is a useful term to represent this increased awareness of the impact technology will have, but how do you make sense out of all the noise and rhetoric?
There are a few different ways to understand the key trends happening, which are useful to keep in mind when considering proptech.
Technology or what it enables
There are so many technologies mentioned all the time that it can be quite baffling. From 3D printing to BIM, virtual reality to blockchain, or big data to artificial intelligence – how do you keep up?
It is useful to understand these technologies at a high level, but far more important is understanding the change that technology will enable. To use a clumsy analogy, most of us don’t need to know how a mobile phone works, but you do need to know how being constantly connected or the availability of apps will affect how people work. I would argue the same applies to many other technologies: blockchain, for example, is something that a lot of people don’t need to know the ins and outs of, but you certainly need to understand the sort of change it may one day enable.
Digitising the past or disrupting the future
There are two things happening at the moment, both equally important, but different. Digitising the past is about doing what has always been done, but using technology to help you to do it better or more efficiently.
Disruption, on the other hand is a complete change in the market enabled by technology. In many ways this is the most interesting as it will have the biggest implications, but we have not seen much disruption yet, at least not in the property sector.
However, examples are out there: Airbnb, LendInvest and WeWork have all looked at the market in a different way and used technology to help them offer a new solution.
To see how much of an effect it might have in the future, we can look at the impact of proptech’s bigger and more established sibling, fintech. Antony Jenkins, former chief executive of Barclays, recently did a story for BBC’s Newsnight looking at the impact technology will have on financial services, summarising: “In 20 years’ time, we may not need banks at all.”
Using technology to improve what you currently do and understanding how the sector may fundamentally change because of what technology enables are both vital, but it is also important not to mix the two things.
Impact on property jobs or property itself
A final way in which it can be useful to look at technologies, or the impact that they will have, is considering whether they will apply to the building or the job role. A good example of this is the use of drones, something I am asked about a lot, but in very different contexts.
Drones will have an effect on how property roles are carried out; indeed, they are already becoming widely used for external survey work and have been for some time. As hardware costs continue to fall, this trend will continue.
However, drones are also being tested for the delivery of goods. The impact of this may be a little further off, but how will this affect warehouses, homes and offices? Whatever the answer, it is the same technology, but different applications, and so different implications.
When you start considering the potential of artificial intelligence, which is already being used to improve cancer treatment or the running of buildings, I believe that in the long term there will be a significant impact on both job roles and the buildings that we build, own and occupy.
So, we don’t need to understand all technologies – just what they will enable, how they can help current roles or fundamentally change the sector. This applies to both how we do our jobs and the wider built environment.
There is little doubt that technology has had an impact on the property sector already, and this will continue at an increasingly rapid pace. Exactly how great its impact will be, how quickly and when is open to debate, but the most important thing is that we as an industry make sure we have the debate and don’t ignore it.
Interact with Dan Hughes on Twitter using @propertyDanH
