Featured article by Sally Writes, Independent Technology Author
The global property market is worth $228 trillion in 2017 up by 5% from 2016 where it was valued at $217 trillion. Stocks and shares combined are appraised at $170 trillion according to the Savills report, making the global real estate more valuable. With such a positive outlook for the industry, keeping up with technology changes could improve efficiency translating to a higher value. Unlike other industries that have kept pace with advances in technology or are ahead of it, real estate has been relatively slow in its response. It is only by growing with technology that tremendous expansions can be achieved and sustained. Here are two vital technologies the sector must incorporate fast into their strategy plans to continuously evolve.
Blockchain
The distributed ledger technology is what makes up the Blockchain technology. It is how the famous bitcoin and cryptocurrencies work eliminating the middleman or a central authority figure to control a transaction. In its place, a series of computers record, encrypt and safeguard a transaction between people and entities.
Blockchain has immense applications potential for the property market. Instead of dealing with many players in the sale process, property buyers can just click on a house, land or building that they want to acquire, put them in a shopping cart and presto, the rest is taken care of by Blockchain. It will log in the sale and ensure that the buyer gets the title and deed of the property. Blockchain will also certify the deed and title as part of public records or a similar entity.  Sellers are going to be paid by bitcoin or other forms of cryptocurrency.
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
AI equips machines with the task of thinking, behaving and acting like a human. It is all over the place and the real estate industry is no exception. Seen as a direct competition of real estate agents, computers can take over the sale of a piece of property. Like searching for the best loan rates, these machines crunch numbers, scan data to identify potential buyers and then target them with ads on social media sites and selected websites. Robots are also deployed to answer queries of clients during open houses. One such company that makes use of AI to sell real estate is REX Real Estate Exchange.
The advantage of using this type of service is automation and AI lower operating costs reducing the need for many real estate agents and thereby, lowering the commission rates charged from 5-6% to 2% in the case of REX. On top of AI and robotics, real estate agents still play a crucial role in the sale process complementing robots as the human touch is very important once there is a buyer or seller.
Blockchain and AI are two technologies that are cited often in the real estate world. Their implications for the industry are immense – improved margins, efficient administration and cheaper transactions for buyers & sellers.
