Is Australia’s Property Sector Ready for the PropTech Revolution?

Is Australia ready for a PropTech shake-up?

According to an Analytics Impact Index report compiled by researchers from Melbourne Business School and consulting firm AT Kearney, Australian businesses are lacking in the way they use data for competitive advantage.

The report found that Australian firms extracted on average 12 per cent less value out of their data operations than firms in the rest of the world due to “a lack of competition and a restrictive fear of failure” .

"The profits of local firms are somewhat protected; there are a number of oligopolies in this market. Possibly the complacency that comes with that type of market is that they haven't invested as heavily in data analytics as those in overseas markets,’ the report’s author A.T. Kearney Partner Enrico Rizzon said.

"It is changing. Woolworths and Coles had a cosy relationship but Aldi now has a growing market share and Amazon has also entered the market.”

Can we catch up or has the horse already bolted?

According to Bob Courteau, chief executive of global real estate software, data and advisory services giant Altus Group, CRE firms are facing the challenge of finding a balance between operational benefits delivered by existing technology and the potential disruptive impact to business models by what’s coming next.

Australia’s property sector can embrace the challenge ahead and catch up to the broader global PropTech sector. There are predictions that investment in PropTech in Australia will reach $20 billion by 2020.

Commercial property behemoth Charter Hall has also recently launched Australia's first PropTech accelerator program, in partnership with Collective Campus, that serves to attract entrepreneurs into a 13-week program with up to $400,000 of benefits.

“If companies are not thinking about and planning to deploy technology as part of how they’re going to run their business, then they’ll be left behind in realising the greatest performance for their investments, portfolios and how to run their business” Bob Courteau, CEO Altus Group

According to Altus Group’s CRE Innovation Report, progress is being made.
Fifty-eight per cent of those surveyed globally said they use more CRE-specific applications today than they did three years ago.
Experts have predicted that the major areas for disruption through PropTech include urban planning, design and construction, search, sale and acquisition, leasing and management, data analytics, sustainability.

Other areas such as autonomous vehicles, the sharing economy, the Internet of Things (IoT), open trading platforms and asset financing and liquidity platforms are also anticipated to incur rapid technology advancements.
“Organisations that will lead the way as the next wave of technology arrives are those that seek to change the rules of the game by disrupting traditional business processes and models, adding greater value and gaining competitive advantage,” Courteau said.

Original content posted by: The Urban Developer

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