The PropTech scene was also affected by the Corona crisis this year - consolidations have taken place in many places, but the scene still shows itself to be diverse and agile. There are some shifts in focus that will also shape us even more from 2021 onwards. We would therefore like to take a look back at the past twelve months and venture a brief outlook into 2021.
In recent years, innovative solutions and digital products often still had a "nice-to-have" character and were initially used playfully. Even before the Corona crisis, however, consolidation and a maturing process had already taken place, which has now been significantly accelerated by the pandemic: Digitization measures that primarily achieve the ability to act and increase efficiency as well as improved value creation became "must-haves". Business models that address this accordingly are consequently not only innovative, but also economically more and more without alternative.
Above all, the use of holistic digital solutions is a success factor: "To establish innovation across the board, a single digital solution is not enough. The entire real estate management service, including all communication channels, should be covered by cross-divisional approaches in order to offer real estate companies sustainable added value," explains Eric Aplyn, Managing Director of Allthings.
Sustainability, resource efficiency, climate protection and digitization are the challenges of our time, even in the special times of the Corona pandemic. The upcoming topic: Environment Social Governance or ESG for short. The real estate industry has a central role to play here, as resource consumption in the creation and operation of real estate should be reduced through optimized processes, smart software solutions and a comprehensive partner ecosystem. Increasingly, the focus is on how digital innovations and business models can help improve buildings from an ecological perspective and accelerate reduction paths. The options are not just about operations either, but also encompass multifaceted innovations in design and build processes when creating or repurposing real estate.
This will require even more courage in terms of large-scale collaborations between incumbents and PropTechs. The future can only be contested together. Our focus from 2021 onwards is thus shifting more and more towards networking with other providers with whom we will make it possible to anchor radical innovations with a view to economic, ecological and also social sustainability.
Learn more about the rapid development of the PropTech scene in recent years and the future of digitalization from Stefan Zanetti in the PropTalk Podcast with EVANA AG