Chapter 1: PropTech, An Introduction

Who does PropTech impact?

Everyone should be familiar with the latest trends in the PropTech industry. You could be a government employee, who is searching for a short-term stay; you could be a young professional, traveling to a new city on a business trip; you could be a university student, seeking out an apartment or flat to rent by yourself or with mates; you could be looking for a place to settle with your family or for your parents when they retire; you could be an experienced investor looking for a market opportunity or a young business school student attempting to learn about emerging industries.

PropTech is so interwoven with our daily lives that we do not often think about it. Even for laborers in very different industries, the nature of PropTech will impact their lives, simply because the real tate market is so interwoven with the economy of every country on the face of the earth. If we look at the countries where the cost of real-estate to income is the highest on the face of the earth, we Argentina, and China, as well as some we do not, such as Ghana, Iran, and Cambodia.

From Shanghai to Silicon Valley, from Miami to Monaco, the innovation of PropTech impacts us all. Therefore, we have composed the 2023 PropTech Barometer to speak to the widest audience possible, from industry leaders, students, and government officials to the general public.

What is PropTech?

PropTech refers to a combination of technology, real estate, and platform economics. PropTech refers to the digital technologies that clients and practitioners in the real estate industry use daily. These technologies can be software applications (apps), complex data-analysis algorithms, or websites that facilitate the ease of transactions. PropTech overlaps with fields of financial technology (FinTech), construction technology (ConTech), and information management technology (IMT) to provide solutions to everyday problems in the real estate industry.

Typically, PropTech improves efficiency. However, PropTech could also contribute to organizational sustainability, client experience, or investor satisfaction. For the sake of accessibility, we break the companies covered in the 2023 PropTech Barometer into four categories: investing, building, managing, living. We devote special energy to highlighting the trends in each of these categories and demonstrating their impact on the broader field of PropTech.

Where is PropTech relevant?

PropTech emerged predominantly in the United States during the early 21st century. At first, technology innovation in the real estate industry lagged. Other industries, including the related FinTech industry, emerged as early as the late 1980s and early 1990s in the U.S. Yet despite its late arrival, PropTech became a major player. PropTech quickly spread to Europe and has since become a major force in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

In Europe, PropTech may have originated in France, Monaco, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, but it has spread to become a significant force in every real estate market. In Asia, PropTech startups are now impacting the most dynamic and largest real estate markets in the world, not just in India and China, but also in Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines. And, in the United States, PropTech continues to shape the highest valued real estate markets in the country.

Why is understanding PropTech critical?

PropTech is so deeply integrated with the real estate market that it impacts the nature of every economy in the world. Even in developing economies where we do not often think of high-value real estate as a commodity, PropTech startups are impacting local businesses. In the traditionally high-value markets of London, Paris, and New York City, PropTech is part of the marketplace at every turn. Almost every short-term stay transaction in the tourist industry today is facilitated by PropTech, and this is to say nothing of major market disruptors such as Zillow in the United States. The massive diversification and surge of different types of PropTech companies implies that continued innovation in this field will continue to impact every economy in the world in decades to come.