Originally published July 2022.

It is likely that all readers know that WFH means ‘work from home’, VR is virtual reality and crypto refers to various crypto currencies like bitcoin and ethereum, and BIM is ‘building information modeling’ and ESG is Environmental, Social and Governance, and yet few of these terms existed a dozen years ago. We used to call our buildings ‘smart buildings’ if they had an advanced HVAC system with a few sensors, but today we are well beyond that. Our dialect and lexicons are evolving faster than our recent decisions to seldom wear neck ties or business suits anymore.  

There are many who believe there is room for efficiencies in the way we design, build, buy, lease, manage, value, finance, transact, insure, secure, report and sell real estate resulting in lots of startups.    We also have a bevy of new disclosures and risk metrics to disclose to investors and regulators. Allow me to discern my perceptions on these trends.  

PropTech is a generic term for every technology that is aimed at serving the property market. Like FinTech aimed at the financial services industry and ClimateTech aimed at serving climate change-related business, PropTech is rather broad and includes long-established firms and a bevy of startups.  We can divide PropTech into some general categories, based on the way they process and use information, including those below: 

Metaverse: The term ‘digital twins’ is fairly new and represents the visualisation of a proposed, new, existing or purely digital three-dimensional building. BIM (building information modelling) is based upon a digital twin and BIM software like Revit, Revizto, Procore, Twinmotion and others. It allows users to visualise or simulate the construction process, design elements like lighting or materials, or simulate the user experience with virtual reality walk throughs or tours, that can be used for marketing or conferences. Augmented reality lets us add the digital overlay on existing landscapes and buildings and feel emersed in the actual structure, via computer screens or goggles for more of a 3D feel. Once used mostly in the construction phase of a project, today the emphasis is equally on marketing influenced by a Covid-induced desire to pre-screen space remotely. Applications like PIX (REALNEX-VR) are aimed at serving this market. More recently, digital twin technology is being used to monitor and manage the operations of property, by combining the digital twin with information collection via sensors, cameras and drones. The metaverse can also facilitate conferences with interaction using avatars (typically based on simple images users select), although someday the images will start to take on Spielberg-like quality and realism. In such a VR conference we can choose which break-out to attend or approach other people and strike up conversations. As an attendee in one of these conferences, it is just as challenging to walk up and introduce yourself to someone in VR as it is in real life. None of this tech is that new, but advances in technology and internet speed have made it more practical than ever. At the extreme, ExP.World, an example of a purely digital commercial brokerage world built on a metaverse platform that includes automated language translation allows for international transactions. Yet ExP.World requires no headquarters of real estate in the traditional sense. Ironic that ExP.World requires no space itself, aside from home or remote offices.