Originally published March 2021.

Proptech aims to disrupt in multiple ways, but equity markets may hold a clue to the future.

This is the third article in our proptech series. The first looked at how to connect finance and property markets; the second explained how a huge relational database can be created by linking the four quadrants of real estate. In this article we highlight the areas where proptech, which essentially comes in three forms (see below), will disrupt real estate investment markets, and discuss the consequences for the major participants involved.

Segmenting into top-middle-and-bottom

If you take a holistic view of the European commercial direct real estate market, it is broadly split into three segments. The bottom, which we class as transactions with a value of less than €15m, accounts for the largest number of trades, but is by far the smallest by total value. By contrast, the middle has a smaller number of trades, although in value terms accounts for the largest percentage of business. Finally, you have the top segment, which consists of trades over €300m – this has the smallest number of transactions. How will proptech impact each of these areas going forward?