Since 2011 Axel Gedaschko is the president of the umbrella association of the housing industry GdW (with whom we’re working together since June 2018) and promotes the interests of the regional associations and their members – about 3.000 housing and real estate companies in Germany – with regards to politics, the economy and the media. In his opinion the digitization provides many opportunities and development possibilities for the housing industry as well as for cities and rural regions. He shares more on that this week in our ‘my 7 cents’ series.
What do you think is completely underestimated when discussing the digitization of the real estate sector?
Many real estate companies completely underestimate the option that companies from other industries can enter the world of housing. Market giants such as Amazon and Google are already busy in the “Smart Home” segment. The examples of Uber, the taxi operator without taxis, and booking.com, the hotel agency without hotels, are worn out since long ago. Nevertheless, here we can see how digital platforms conquered a market position that intervenes and determines the pricing policy and freedom of disposition of the industry sectors concerned. No industry is immune against such developments, but there are only good opportunities for those who are taking action themselves. And that’s what we all have to do now.
Which sentence are you tired of hearing when discussing the digitization of the real estate sector?
Definitely the sentence “we’ll take care of it later”. Nobody is waiting for us, and companies from other industries are already making use of the opportunities that the digitization offers especially in the housing environment. The digitization is already here! The only question left is if we’ll participate in shaping it or let the opportunity pass. In my opinion, it is inevitable that housing and real estate companies with industry experience are going to actively shape the market and therefore ensure a high quality of the new digital services.
Which digital solutions are – in your opinion – missing in the real estate sector?
A well adopted Building Information Modeling (BIM) for the housing industry in order to calculate the costs of construction, maintenance, and lifecycle of a building through digital planning more precisely. Moreover, a digital connection with the building permit authorities. But here the real estate industry is no exception, the digital connection with public authorities is generally proceeding slowly in Germany.
What are the top 3 interesting digital services that you’ve seen in the real estate sector during the last 6 months?
The program Fresh Energy. With the help of a smart meter (an intelligent electricity meter) the energy consumption of a household is being measured and broken down in detail. Via an app the consumer can see how much energy he uses for what. Therefore, it’s easier to control and reduce the energy consumption.
Using the app magicplan, it’s easy to create floor plans with a smartphone or tablet. The corners of a room can be digitized and processed into a floor plan. Based on that floor plan the quantity of material or costs of construction activities can be calculated.
The third service is Atmosphere, a digital interpreter platform that translated messenger requests from individuals into workflows of companies.
If you were a real estate owner: what would you do as a first step in regards to digitization?
I would develop a 360 degree digitization strategy with my employees. When it comes to the digitization of processes and business models, It’s important to get everybody involved right from the beginning. Digitization doesn’t necessarily mean the loss of jobs, but it certainly means that the work and tasks within a company are changing.
If you were to work in a public authority and could make a change in order to speed up the digitization in the real estate industry: what would it be?
The knowledge about the possibilities and potentials of the digitization as well as the technical know-how in order to execute are essential, yet lacking in many areas. That’s why I’d try to create interfaces between the administration, the programs of the housing industry and the digital world. The bundling of information here is extremely important. In the run-up to the new coalition we have requested a digitization ministry that also has know-how in the real estate sector, as well as that can group and effectively push all activities related to the digitization of the German government. We’re glad to see the state minister for digitization in the Federal Chancellery, Mrs. Dorothee Bär, but don’t believe that this is enough.
In which company – Allthings and your own excluded 
– would you like to be a fly on a wall for one week?
At Google. The possibilities that Google has as huge cooperation in the areas of research and product development are fascinating. It would be interesting to take a look at the Google Labs and see how long into the future they’re thinking there. In particular, I’d be curious to learn more about the ideas and products in regards to the digitization of building and living.
Learn more about the GdW here.
Read more about the cooperation and the GdW editions of the Allthings Platform here.