Savills World Research team reported that the global real estate values totalled $228 trillion in 2018.

The Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation (CRETI) tabulated the amount of money venture capital invested in Proptech start-ups in 2021 and found that nearly $23.8 billion was invested. As a comparison $186m has been invested in 2011.

Real estate Investors only invest 0.5% in research and development.

According to experts at the World Economic Forum, the real estate industry consumes 41% of global energy annually (Industry 30%, transport 29%) and accounts for 20% of international carbon emissions.

According to the World Bank, the real estate sector must achieve a 36% reduction in emissions by 2030 if the targets agreed in Paris are to be met. This translates to an annual decrease of 25% in energy consumption and 3% in emissions across the sector.

The real estate industry is deep and sophisticated. This sector is evolving and becoming more complex as well as harder to define. According to Andrew Baum, Oxford University Professor of Practice, the Proptech sector can be categorised into four areas of innovations:

Shared Economy is focused on the way you offer services to a building through apps and tech platforms.

Airbnb or WeWork are good examples

Real Estate FinTech provides information to buyers and sellers and facilitates the transactions

Example: Online residential brokers, mortgage platforms, valuation platforms, platforms where you can monitor your rent collection, crowdfunding platforms.

Smart Real Estate is focused on operation and management. The technologies provide information about the building and its performance or they can help to control the building.

ConTech is the technology used to innovate the way we plan, design, and build structures, as well as the manufacture and installation of their components. These companies attempt to serve engineers and architects in the design and construction of buildings. ConTech includes anything from wearable Technology to component design and manufacturing.

Sustainability

Proptech and sustainability have the potential to change the future of real estate. The push towards sustainable living has become tremendously prominent in the last decade. New players are constantly emerging in the fight to combat climate risk by providing sustainable living alternatives, and the growing number of Proptech companies across the globe are at the heart of this change.

The real estate industry consumes some 40% of all raw materials globally, some 40% of the world’s energy, and is responsible for more than 30% of carbon dioxide emissions.

The Proptech sector has been and will continue to be a catalyst in propelling real estate to the next level. To further aid the growing trend of sustainability within Proptech, sourcing the right experts and creating a culture to foster awareness and education about sustainable opportunities in property is vital in keeping the industry alive.

Affordability

The way we’ve been building houses over the past 50 years, has meant that the issue with affordability has often gone unnoticed. Traditional housing market players have often faced difficulties when trying to solve this problem, however here are four ways we think PropTech will tackle this issue.