Tech growth points towards endless opportunities for proptech
KUALA LUMPUR: Digitisation and property technology (proptech) have been buzzwords in recent years, but following the impact of Covid-19 and the various Movement Control Orders (MCOs) in Malaysia, they have become realities for home seekers, agents, developers and financial institutions alike.
According to SkyBridge International chief executive officer Adrian Un, their influence is seen in numerous facets of the home ownership journey, from property research and project viewings to financing, credit assessment, purchasing and more, as innovative solutions provide accessibility, convenience and automation in areas where they have been lacking.
And while there will always be a place for the human touch in property, emerging technologies such as blockchain point towards everexpanding horizons for PropTech applications, streamlining and facilitating property transactions in new and unforeseen ways as the property industry catches up to digitalisation in other fields.
“In terms of immediate impacts, however, there’s no doubt that Covid-19 has changed the way we live,” Un said.
“Property portals (76 per cent), social media platforms (64 per cent), and blogs and online articles (42 per cent) are now the most popular sources of property information for home seekers, surpassing property agents (40 per cent) and friends and family (29 per cent), according to a recent study by PropertyGuru, the nation’s largest property site.”
In addition, virtual tours are emerging as a favoured tool for younger home seekers aged 22 to 29, a demographic which has shown a surge of interest in home ownership following the MCO. This transition is timely, as Malaysia has historically been slower in adopting PropTech.
For example, building information modelling (BIM) solutions had an adoption rate of just 17 per cent among local players in 2016.
Today, video conferencing solutions such as Zoom and virtual platforms have become the de facto standard in connecting with potential purchasers and developers in other markets.
In addition, integrated sales platforms such as FastKey are streamlining property transactions, reducing paper and logistics costs, and delivering data insights for organisations while eliminating legacy issues such as double bookings.
These data insights can also help business owners make timely and informed operational decisions. For example, real-time reporting allows managers to identify top performers and target areas for improvement, while facilitating the sharing of business performance with stakeholders across the board.