OV E RV I E W
Technology stars in the future of real estate investment By A. Paris
W
hen Covid-19 first plunged the world into a series of successive lockdowns in the early part of last year, to many, the prospects for the global property industry appeared bleak. With hundreds of millions of workers around the world being encouraged to work from home indefinitely, many felt the long-term impact on both the commercial office space market and city centre retail would be potentially devastating. Starved of traditional commuters and devoid of office workers, what would happen to many of the densely-built central urban office districts where so many people have traditionally worked? Now, as economies begin to recover and workers return to the office – but in new and more flexible ways – there is a growing realisation: New technology is set to reshape the way the industry operates and ‘proptech’ is taking on a crucial role as the real estate industry emerges from the pandemic. Things may never be quite the same again. “The key to maximising existing and current real estate projects is increased flexibility as to the use and services 4 | www.propertyfundsworld.com
provided by each property,” writes Dimitri Tournas, an associate in the real estate team at Withers, the international law firm. Landlords, investors and tenants have all been forced to adjust and are eager to maximise the potential of properties which are more in demand, given the current climate. Against this background, new technology is helping more organisations use real estate more flexibly, enabling a hybrid model where staff alternate between working from home and spending time in the office. It is proptech which is proving critical to support this trend. Daniel Lepore, AMP Capital Real Estate’s Head of Asset Technology, comments: “There’s no doubt proptech has become a key change for the way we operate our buildings. It is increasingly becoming a differentiator for building owners to deliver superior tenant experiences, efficient operations and deliver data-driven insights to better inform investment decisions and ultimately deliver greater returns.” The growing recognition that proptech is crucial to the industry’s future is encouraging a flood of investment to PROPTECH IN FOCUS | Jul 2021
