Technological Innovation Trends in Commercial Real Estate
Technological innovation is shifting the way we interact and do business on a daily basis. For many, the pandemic exposed digital shortcomings for companies and fueled investment into custom software development to better serve their end-users. Commercial real estate has long been viewed as a “legacy industry”; one in which has adopted the same processes and technology over an extended period of time. But, with a record high of $746 billion being invested in commercial real estate in 2021, this is rapidly changing. Leaders in the market are adopting technology at a fast pace as they look to reduce costs, improve operational efficiencies, seek new revenue opportunities, and improve the user experience.
The commercial real estate industry is sitting on a gold-mine of data, which presents a major opportunity for firms to take advantage of in seeking ways to outpace their competition. The use of data is also allowing companies to adopt technology in a way that is strategic, cost-efficient, and effective. Technology is allowing companies to present their customers with a better experience which helps with retention and increases their bottom-line. Data will continue to drive what is next in commercial real estate as the industry continues to adopt technology at a rapid pace.
Let’s take a look at the current technological trends in commercial real estate.
What Technology is Being Adopted Across Commercial Real Estate?
Predictive analytics is offering commercial real estate firms relevant data and property details in seconds. Details include ownership, selling history, tenant history, capitalization records, and beyond. This is allowing brokers to better understand and analyze prospective tenants, as well as commercial real estate firms to gain in-depth knowledge on prospective properties.
The pandemic put augmented and virtual reality technology investment on the fast-track as firms looked for different ways to engage their potential clients without interacting face-to-face. AR and VR has helped not only with taking prospects on a virtual tour, but it has also helped commercial real estate firms engage with more investors as they no longer need to travel to the site in addition to helping evaluate construction opportunities. Overall, offering a better experience for everyone involved.
“Digital Twins” are fueled by machine learning and the internet of things (IoT). This is a replica of a real-world object to view performance and efficiency in a simulation environment. Digital Twins can be used to evaluate building performance, tenant, staff, and vendor information, along with energy inefficiencies to improve long-term sustainability.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are enabling software programs to take out the once manual processes that required human intelligence. This is helping firms work more efficiently and better-serve their end-users by automating the processes of identifying in-complete information in documents, drafting proposals, screening prospects, among other things.
Blockchain technology is fueling growth in the real estate industry as it reduces friction and allows for transactions to be quick, as well as efficient and fraud-proof. The blockchain is an electronic, decentralized ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain. This technology can revolutionize commercial real estate transactions and property records. Check out this post on blockchain technology from one of our partners at JLL.
How is Codelitt Helping Commercial Real Estate Firms Innovate?
Codelitt has had the opportunity to work on some awesome projects that have spurred innovation in the commercial real estate industry.
Blackbird enables a patented 3D approach for brokers to help clients explore property options across the country to gain a more complete sense of a property's attributes without the time and cost of an onsite physical inspection. Users can assess potential markets based on real-time market data like demographics, tax incentives, and access to transit. It even showed details on current construction projects to highlight what a property would have. The solution ensured that brokers, researchers, and clients could all easily organize the robust information they needed in a logical and engaging way.
End-to-end commercial real estate transaction management. This comprehensive software, from prospecting to closing, resulted in huge gains in productivity among the brokers without sacrificing any functionality. Extremely easy to use, Halo shortened deal cycles, improved deal intelligence, and led to increased revenue overall.
An augmented reality solution built for commercial real estate. Instead of pointing and clicking, users can look and air tap. They can say things like “view vacancies on floor 5” or “show me our buildings in Chicago”.
We are excited for what is ahead in commercial real estate in 2022 and beyond! Codelitt enjoys helping companies create and build new things. If you have a project or idea in mind, we’d love to hear from you! Contact us here.