Vinit Dungarwal is the Director, AMs Project Consultants. An innovative and performance-oriented leader with more than 15 years of experience, Vinit is the driving force behind the brand’s growth & success and offers deep insights and proficiency in handling large-scale, multi-business operations. Vinit believes in building an organization at AMs with a collaborative and entrepreneurial approach to business and the workplace. Within a few years, he managed to scale the team size to 100+ by identifying gaps and filling them with the right talent. He is passionate about networking and mentoring entrepreneurs who are keen and zealous about scaling their businesses to the next level.
Today, technology has become the backbone of most industries. Traditionally, property management has operated in isolation from businesses that heavily rely on technology for innovation, growth, and success. But that has changed. PropTech is the latest buzzword on everyone’s lips. It is often referred to as the new disruptive force and innovation driver, as well as the modern solution for real estate professionals suffering from piles of paperwork and disorganized records across multiple spreadsheets. PropTech, or property technology, refers to all the technological tools used by Real Estate professionals to optimize the purchasing, selling, researching, marketing, and management of properties.
PropTech : The future of real estate
PropTech is a small part of the property industry’s broader digital transformation. It describes a movement that is influencing a mental shift in the real estate industry and among its consumers in regard to technology-driven innovation in data assembly, transactions, and the design of buildings and cities. The incorporation of PropTech into the real estate industry simplifies large-scale, complex operations and improves the accuracy and efficiency of data management. In India, the PropTech market has grown exponentially in recent years and is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030.
Segmentation of PropTech
This segmentation includes the various facets of a property ranging from Digitization of land records, GPS mapping, Property Management consisting of home and building automation, and digital property management services. And further into construction technology –building information modelling (BIM), 3D printing, and sales and marketing platforms enabling properties to be listed and marketed online. Other ancillary services such as furniture rentals, interior design services, and shared economy have also gained traction. By doing all this, technology enables the real estate industry to have access to things such as drones, virtual reality, big data, IoT, AI, and Blockchain and offer software as a service.
This gradual transformation of the real estate sector can be traced back to 2008 – 2019 with the arrival of technologies such as cloud computing, big data, smartphones, and mobile internet in the real estate sector with consumer experience taking center stage. Today the demand for Digital acceleration in the real estate sector to multiply with necessitated use of technology is imperative in the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario.
Growth of PropTech in India
This transformation of the real estate landscape has been enabled by the digital transformation of India driven by the internet boom, India has the second largest internet base in the world with 40 per cent internet penetration, 500 million-plus smartphone users, and a 71 per cent of internet users being between 21 – 49 years. 416 million more people by 2050 are likely to shift to urban areas creating massive demand. Smart cities, in which PropTech will play a major role, are the future of India’s urban planning and infrastructure initiatives. These cities have underlying themes, such as device connectivity, big data utilization, and feedback loop creation.
Government initiatives such as Digital India (2015), Smart Cities Mission (2015) an urban renewal and retrofitting program that aims to develop and make sustainable 100 cities across the country, Foreign Direct Investment Policy combined with improved ease of doing business in India is likely to propel PropTech technology even further. The greater degree of personalization possible from being a one-stop solution to some PropTech companies provide not just property information but also help in home loans, Vastu, interior designers, and other few basic requirements makes it an important asset. Although the technological landscape is constantly evolving PropTech’s objective is to consistently provide high-quality, pertinent information and insights for improved stakeholder engagement. This could involve the digitization and automation of property data, sustainable construction technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and virtual tours. PropTech has the potential to support the entire construction, management, and discovery process for real estate.
As PropTech gains external momentum and financial support, a growing number of project management firms are adopting and integrating it into their operations. This is enabling them to serve their clients better. In India, PropTech is rapidly transforming the traditional real estate industry. It is bringing efficiency, transparency, and speed to the sale and purchase of real estate. It has already transformed the industry significantly and is becoming even more relevant and useful in the new normal brought about by the pandemic.