This is a guest article written by Jonny Britton and first appeared in our collaborative e-book “The Future of Property,” which features 17 thought leadership articles covering PropTech, property investment and housing. You can download your free copy here.
Jonny Britton is the Co-Founder and CEO of Land Insight. He has an MA Landscape Planning and Management and worked as a town planning consultant before becoming a software entrepreneur. He was voted a RICs future leader, is a black belt in judo and his dream is to watch Newcastle United win the Champions League. Land Insight makes site sourcing and deal management simple. It brings together the core maps, data and tools needed to source new opportunities and manage them through to completion.
“Data will show the workings of much more of the property industry.”
As technology becomes more integrated within the property sector (“PropTech”), the entire industry will move faster. Paper based processes will turn digital, enabling real-time collaboration; virtual viewings will remove the need to travel as much; fit outs and interior design will be simulated over the real world through augmented reality; connecting your personal profile into the range of house bills you need to pay when moving property will be automatic; investment decisions will be based on live market data.
It is better access to data that is at the heart of the speed improvements in the sector. The cloud enabled the infrastructure for data to move faster and Moore’s Law (the processors in computer microchips doubling in power every other year) led to computers getting much smaller. These technology platform trends enabled new forms of web-based structures such as smart phones, APIs (interoperable websites), data rooms, live streaming, social networks and mobile payments.
“There are two trends that will make the tools mentioned above seem like the rocks and bones cavemen used as tools.”
There are two trends that will make the tools mentioned above seem like the rocks and bones cavemen used as tools. They will increase the amount of data currently used exponentially and they will have a dramatic impact on the real estate industry and infrastructure. These are:
1) The Internet of Things – which means actual things connect up to the internet. This could be anything from a smartwatch, to an air conditioning unit to a car. If a building is fully connected to the web multiple advantages happen. From a construction and maintenance point of view, structural problems that threaten to arise can be detected by picking up unexpected activity so they can be fixed before they cause damage. From a building management perspective, cost reductions can be found in the real time usage of environmental controls such as lighting and temperature.
2) Artificial Intelligence (AI) – this is an umbrella term for new techniques that process data without human input. It means that huge amounts of data can be collated, standardised and interpreted that wouldn’t have been possible before. There are many examples of this making a dramatic impact. Google recently made a 40% energy reduction from its server centres using AI. Land Insight aggregates landownership, councils’ planning documents, building and market data from masses of sources, and uses AI to interpret them before mapping them out to find and assess off-market development opportunities. The same technology enables Computer Vision, which lets cars drive themselves. From a property perspective, it can analyse video footage, so it can interpret what it sees in order to detect things that shouldn’t be there, or recognise particular objects, or people. If people are able to overcome their fear of CCTV (we pretty much accept it being looked at by humans, don’t we?), then adopting AI within building security, or concierge services can create new unique experiences.
“The combining of these two mega trends: exponentially more data being created and having the facility to interpret it at scale, will allow the property industry to make better decisions and move faster.”
The combining of these two mega trends: exponentially more data being created and having the facility to interpret it at scale, will allow the property industry to make better decisions and move faster. New opportunities emerge from new data being made available. Inside the home is an obvious starting point. How a person behaves is now significantly more trackable now that data about movement, energy use, shopping patterns, health and habits is accessible. With this data being collected about its inhabitants, buildings can react in more personalised ways to provide better experiences.
This already happens, using the data being emitted by the watches or phones of swarms of cyclists through cities. Combine the data of the cyclists route with vehicle emission data and you can offer updated directions that help people avoid congested areas. Amazon uses AI for suggesting items for you to buy. Facebook learns about your likes and photos to understand who you are.
“If real-time decision making can be enabled by a combination of increasing data and advanced processing techniques, what impact does this have to real estate industry?”
If real-time decision making can be enabled by a combination of increasing data and advanced processing techniques, what impact does this have to real estate industry? It further drives forward the liquidity of the market. With crowdfunding and the sharing economy re-thinking property ownership, widening the base of investors and giving funds access to multi-local markets, access to data will fuel faster decision making. Data will show the workings of much more of the property industry, more informed decisions will be possible and new big opportunities will arise.
– Written by Jonny Britton
Capital at risk
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