Wolfgang Moderegger is the founder of the Real Estate Innovation Network. Having studied architecture in Munich, he established his own planning consultancy. In 1998 he started AIS Management GmbH in which he holds the position of a managing partner up to this day. In his function of running and participating in working parties, working groups and committees he focuses – among others – on industrial services, product maintenance and repair and building management. In our ‘my7cents’ series he shares his insights about the digitization of the real estate industry.
Business models are completely transformed due to the digitization. That will most likely lead to the disappearance of established companies. Let’s take asset management as an example. This will – sooner or later – be entirely replaced by digital asset management platforms. These platforms will, presumably, come from the outside, i.e. from FinTech rather than from the real estate industry itself.
I believe startups are for the most part overestimated, and in particular their quality in terms of solutions that are demanded by the market. Let’s face it: there are too many startups that are average. In order to bring innovation in a sustainable manner into the industry, startups that are thematically related to each other should be actively promoted. From there, larger companies can be built that really have an impact on the growth and development of the industry.
I don’t believe anymore that startups are going to digitize the real estate industry. Startups are only a catalyst for the digitization. On the one hand established companies from within the industry are making their way, on the other hand the big players such as Amazon and Google will accelerate the digitization. Let’s take the IoT strategy as an example – Alexa and Google Home are already dominating the global market for voice systems. Of course, startups will play their role – but it won’t be as big as I initially thought.
In the area of real estate valuation I see data-driven services such as 21st Real Estate, DataScience Service, Geospin, Geomatrix, Skenario Labs and Urban Data Analytics allowing for precise valuations which – in the mid-term – will lead to a replacement of the property valuer.
NavVis, Giraffe 360, Insider Navigation or Spectando improve digital surveying, the creation of 3D models and virtual tours.
In retail, the measurement of foot traffic through laser technologie, i.e. by Hystreet.com, or mobile data, i.e. by Placense, allows to make data-driven decisions when designing city centers.
I don’t see an Uber for the real estate industry yet. The data repository is currently too fragmented for that to have happened in my opinion. If the industry creates an Uber I believe it won’t be in the area of optimizing operations, but rather in the area of data analysis, data processing and data usage. At the moment, I see Cloudscraper and Evana as potential candidates, provided that they reach a significant size.
The concept of co-working will be extended to co-living. We’ll see an increasing number of hybrid asset categories – a combination of hotels, co-working, student apartments and serviced living – which will bring all positive aspects of sharing into the area of living and working in buildings. We see that happening already, last year WeWork launched its co-living concept “WeLive 2.0” which continuous to be expanded.
On the second day of the EXPO REAL we’ll have a panel discussion about the topic “Student Hotels, Serviced Apartments – Hotel Concepts for the next Generation? “ where Charlie Macgregor from The Student Hotel and Marc Jongerius from Zoku Amsterdam will participate. Come and join us in the Real Estate Innovation Forum in hall A1.
At the blockchain startup Brickblock which raised nearly $13 Mio. in their ICO, or at the real estate exchange Cloudscraper. I’d love to know how their business models are working in reality and if that’s actually where the big dollars are.