PropTech has become the industry buzzword of the last decade as real estate investors grapple with how they can use technology to their advantage. Artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, the internet of things, crowdfunding, green technologies - a whole industry has been borne out of the desire to create efficiencies and extract greater value from real estate assets.

However, for many real estate investors, the world of technology is something of a foreign land and investing in PropTech means talking in another language. So, how do you identify which technologies are going to provide you with the tangible benefits that will offer greater returns on your property investment?

Identifying need and assessing options
There are PropTech offerings to help aid every aspect of the property lifecycle. You may be looking to speed up your property transactions with smart contracts, or make your properties more attractive to overseas investors with virtual reality. At the planning stage, you may be considering how you can make more informed decisions about space planning or looking to enhance your planning capabilities through the use of 3D modelling and location intelligence solutions.

When managing your property portfolio, you will need to monitor the environmental conditions and energy performance across different areas of the properties. How can you manage and control this in an automated way and use the data you capture to your advantage?

While these examples may be the tip of the iceberg in terms of what technology can achieve, we are starting to see new clauses creep into leases encouraging the sharing of energy performance data between landlords and tenants and requiring the use of specific management and reporting technology to streamline the landlord /  tenant relationship. Increasingly, there is a demand for tenants to work more collaboratively with landlords on improving spaces, whether they be residential or working environments.