EDITOR’S COMMENT: It is very easy these days to talk about the B word, be that Brexit or Boris (or perhaps even cardboard buses, if you’ve seen that video. And I can thoroughly recommend the Janey Godley voiceover on Twitter if you want to laugh even harder). But this week I want to focus my attention on a couple of P words.
First, proptech. Now, I know that we just call it “tech” these days, but that doesn’t start with a P – so work with me on this one.
The proptech chatter has gone a little bit quiet recently. It used to be that you could barely get through a conversation without someone talking about the next big thing in tech, the latest start-up, and how exciting and revolutionary or evolutionary it was going to be.
But, over the past few months that chatter has died down. Does that mean tech isn’t as sexy as it used to be? That tech isn’t as high on firms’ agendas as we were all led to believe it was?
There have been some notable big tech departures over recent weeks and months. Dominic Wilson has stepped down from PiLabs; Darryll Colthrust has left Palmer Capital; and Matt Webster and Rawle Howard have departed from Cloudscraper. Should we be reading anything into that?
CBRE’s chief technology and digital officer Chandra Dhandapani thinks not. She says the quietening of the tech talk is more likely to be a sign of the changing phases of technology adoption.
She believes that in real estate tech is now entering a more serious phase. In our interview she tells us: “From my perspective, the buzz has not died down at all. What we are seeing happening is a degree of clarity away from the initial hype. People are asking big, important questions now, like what are the areas for digital transformation that really make sense? Which start-ups really make sense?
“Investors and occupiers around the world are very much in tune with what’s happening with technology…This is an evolution curve, a maturing of tech in real estate.”
It will be interesting to see how that plays out in a couple of weeks when the winners of the EG Tech Awards are announced. Be there to find out (www.egi.co.uk/tech-awards/).
P number two. PY Gerbeau is back. A few weeks ago I complained (unlike me, I know) that there weren’t enough personalities in the industry any more. That firms were too often led by the money men (or women) and not by the passionate personalities.
PY definitely has personality. And this journalist certainly hopes that in the period since leaving X-Leisure in 2013 and joining London Resort this week, he hasn’t lost any of his “say it like it is” approach. Welcome back PY. I wonder who might be next to return.
And my final P has to go to the wonderful women of the PedElle.
I was absent from these pages last week because I was cycling through Tuscany (tough life, I know), with 48 other women from the real estate community. The ride was a perfect mix of age, seniority and sectors, and showed exactly what this industry can do when it gets together to work for a common goal.
No (wo)man was left behind. Help was there whenever you needed it, whatever it was. And between them, these women raised more than £50,000 for Coram. It is a phenomenal result from a phenomenal effort and – for me, at least – is one of the reasons we should be positive (another P) about the future of this industry.
Chapeau!
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
