What’s the next big thing in proptech and real estate innovation?

With the adoption of advanced technology in various sectors, a whole new realm of opportunities has opened up for startups. Like every other sector, the real estate sector has seen an explosion of innovation over the last decade. The industry is expected to contribute to 13 percent of India’s GDP by 2025, and is expected to reach a market size of $1 trillion by 2030.

While the global real estate industry has seen a massive tectonic shift, Indian real estate has also felt the effects. Technology has revolutionised the Indian real estate industry in more ways than one. From ‘Smart Cities’ to smart homes, technology can be found in every aspect of the real estate ecosystem.

Owing to the amorphous nature of Indian real estate and the changing needs of the consumers, proptech has become more crucial, and advanced technologies like AI and VR have become more prevalent.

But what next?

Here are some of the biggest proptech trends to monitor in the coming years.

Increased demand for virtual home tours

As concerns about the pandemic grew in 2020, people, especially those living in bigger cities, began to minimise physical contact to mitigate the risk of accidental transmission. A large percentage of millennials and Gen Z generation started opting for virtual and mobile real estate services. This resulted in the increased use of virtual tools like 3D and VR headsets in the early stages of buying or leasing to identify opportunities worth going after.

Top real estate brands are enabling virtual tours of property and sites for prospective buyers to provide a virtually simulated life-like experience. These tours are rapidly gaining traction and are becoming a mainstay in the real estate business.

This advancement is not only sprucing up the process by three to six months, it is also saving time and efforts of developers and homebuyers. As this tech-led intervention advances further, it will be interesting to see the data incorporated into the virtual walkthrough.

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E-signing becomes the norm

Another game-changing proptech trend that has helped brokers and real estate companies is the increased use of e-signing for lease, rent or purchase agreements, contracts, NOC from various departments, and other property transactions.

Implementing digitally signed documents has saved precious time for real estate stakeholders.

With e-signing becoming the norm everywhere, users can now create and e-sign legal documents online without visiting a lawyer. In other words, property transactions have never been simpler than in the current times.

Along with convenience, e-signing can also facilitate scalability. Aadhar-based e-signing solution can give brokers and developers flexibility to scale their businesses overseas, enabling them to tap the NRI client base.

Rental property management and automation takes off

Constant endeavours are being made to make the Indian real estate market fully automated in terms of property management. Today, managing leads, sorting data, and providing responses have become important operational functions that bring huge cost implications to the organisation.

Top developers are already incorporating data pipelines and algorithms into their decision-making process and going forward, managing information will be pivotal in the real estate industry.

Increased interest in fractional real estate investments

Fractional ownership has been a well-accepted concept in western countries for more than a decade and is now gaining popularity in India. The whole idea is about owning a fraction of a high-value asset that is otherwise difficult to manage or sometimes unaffordable for small investors.

The key reason why this trend is picking up is that it associates you with a bigger brand without you having to make the full investment or buy the property.

Fractional ownership is looked upon as a new investment avenue for new-age investors who wish to grow wealth over the span of five to nine years. If you wish to encash your investment even before a certain period, you can do so by selling off your share.

As these get more stable over time, fractional investments will gain popularity and are expected to be seen as a smart choice if investors are looking at a medium-to-long-term investment horizon.

Smart homes

In this era of digitisation, real estate inevitably is transforming to manage the changing perception and needs of homebuyers. Indian consumers are embracing this transformation with open arms.

The smart home market in India is already picking up and is expected to grow to a size of $6 billion by 2022. Home automation is now becoming quite popular, thanks to the advancements in technology adoption and the rise in millennial and Gen-Z homebuyers.

Luxury, security, comfort, and convenience are key parameters that are making home automation and smart homes increasingly popular.

With increased awareness and higher disposable incomes, the market for such homes is definitely hot and large developers in India are increasingly integrating smart home tech in their projects to cater to the changing customer preferences.