Between Two Bricks: A Guide to the Top News in Real Estate Tech (#2)

A guided tour of the best stories in real estate with a slant towards new technology and its impact on the future of buildings, neighborhoods, and cities.

Happy Thursday! This week I’m thinking about the surprising, though short-lived, ruling that barred tenants in New York from paying a brokers’ fee; a shift in investor sentiment towards #proptech following the failed WeWork IPO and what that means for the investment in and the adoption of real estate technology solutions moving forward; the continued #smartcity trend and the challenges revealing themselves along the road to more connected, efficient, and sustainable communities (as well as some negative impacts associated with digital transformation); the future of retail and Foxtrot’s vision for reimagining the convenience store; and the general implementation of technology in the real estate industry, along with the different paths to adoption.  

Things to read about this week:

• The top 6 technologies disrupting the property and real estate industry - “No industry is immune to technological advances, but real estate is one niche that has been traditionally slower to adopt new trends. Not any longer! PropTech is booming and changing the way we buy, sell, and interact with our properties.”
• Smart cities pick up the pace with the internet of things - “Our cities are becoming more connected by the day. Around the world, cities are using the Internet of Things (IoT), fifth generation mobile networks and artificial intelligence technologies to cut traffic congestion, improve public safety and protect the environment.”
• Foxtrot picks up $17 million to reimagine the convenience store - “Amidst the staggering rise of on-demand delivery services, the convenience store has been left relatively untouched. Until very recently. Foxtrot, founded in 2013, is looking to reimagine the corner convenience store, offering customers the option to buy in-store or order online for delivery.”
• How to get started with a smart building technology strategy - “Smart building technology seems inevitable. More and more the idea of having a connected, intelligent building has been gaining attention from owners who seek to drive greater asset value, respond to expectations from tenants, and address a general desire to optimize and automate manual processes.”
• Sorry, renters. You still need to pay brokers’ fees for now - “A New York State judge on Monday temporarily blocked the state’s week-old ruling that had effectively barred tenants from having to pay a broker fee, issuing at least a short-term reprieve to an industry scrambling to respond.”

Things to come back to from the past:

• It’s time for the commercial real estate industry to adopt a tech mindset - “As property managers and investors look to differentiate their assets and reduce operating costs by lowering turnover expenditures, renters and tenants are seeing a rise in the integration of smart home and office features and amenities. These integrated features range from something as simple as a smart home or in-office thermostat, to a Bluetooth connected door locking systems that accommodates after hours deliveries. Technological implementations can give consumers a quick and remote way to control preferences, while also allowing property managers to mine resulting resident data to inform their property amenity strategies.”
• Proptech: a 20-year overnight success - “Consider this – in 2008, a mere US$20 million were invested into proptech start-ups. Ten years later in 2018, this number reached a whopping US$12 billion.”
• The fallout of smart cities is social isolation - “George Orwell’s novel 1984, published in 1949, imagines a society organized by a totalitarian state where daily life is regimented and Big Brother programs every move. Not a totalitarian government, but corporate power, combining with new applications of information technologies, may be leading us to a similar society.”