Influence of data and technology on realty sector

Imagine a time and space in the future where no one owns any cars as it is a lot easier to ride share. The need for parking lots has disappeared as all vehicles are mobile all the time and are being utilised to their full capacity.

House ownership has declined significantly, as it is a lot cheaper and more efficient to rent or share. Retail malls have become a thing of the past as all shopping is taking place online.

There are now multi billion dollar companies working tirelessly to make each of the above posits a reality. If you come from the real estate business all of this sounds like a part of a distant dystopian future. I don’t believe the need for real estate is about to disappear anytime soon but there will be fundamental shifts in how real estate will be developed, owned, bought and sold in the future.

This huge generation of data neccesitates data analytics that can lead to highly informed decision making as we step
into the next big phase of urbanisation in the 21st century. By some estimates over 600 million people will move from rural to urban areas over the next decade and a half.

The breakthroughs in wireless technology and 5G mobile internet will put the speed of an optic fiber connection in everything from a smartphone to a house to a car. By combining Internet of Things (IoT), cloud based systems with real-time data analytics, city administrations will be able to manage everything from electrical grids to water supplies to traffic patterns and many other services much more efficently than ever in the past. In the various distribution systems, connected sensors could detect and fix outages long before a break occurs.

On the real estate development side, big data analytics can add value in every phase of a building’s life cycle, from pre-construction analysis to engineering and enhancing the end- user experience. In the real estate sector, location is a crucial factor. Big data can be used to develop a very precise heat map, identifying traffic patterns in possibly large areas and gathering and converting the information into a detailed analysis, overlaying the value of buildings, lands with demographic patterns.

Once the location has been identified, predictive analytics can be used in better identification of risk (budgetary, project delivery time and regulatory), setting the stage for efficient and effective project management.

From the very beginning of a project, technology will play key role in predicting material utilisation leading to short term inventories, less working capital and reduced wastage.

Certain quantitative aspects like cost, labour, time and progress estimation would no longer hold true if done without in-depth technological algorithms crunching the outcomes possible.

The traditional approach towards every single process in the industry is very labour-intensive, which will have to change as technology and automation can make the process much more efficient and will help the developers in delivering on their commitments. Big data combined with IoT will also be used for efficient building management in managing energy consumption, improving air quality inside the buildings and enhancing the occupant’s experience and increasing sustainability while reducing operating costs. All this will provide a much enhanced living and working experience for the consumer.

The real estate and construction sector in India is the single largest non-farm employer but is still largely untouched by the advancement in technology and innovation causing it to be rated just above agriculture in terms of technology adoption and automation. Like every other industry, real estate sector will change with the evolving technology. The AI tools allow computers and machines to function more intelligently. The drones are helpful in creating 3D images and videos of spaces which can help customers narrow down on property options. The VR enables consumers to get a real-time experience of living in their yet to be constructed homes or offices.

Automation helps real estate marketing where the updating of property listings could be carried out using advanced machine learning techniques. Through blockchain, data is accessible to anyone on the Internet and will play an important role in the storage of information for real estate transactions in the future. This will help significantly reduce transaction fraud by digitising the property records as well as all property transactions.

Using Big Data, mapping, geolocation and machine learning to present prospective property investors and customers with the most relevant and attractive offerings is at present the fundamental way Big Data technologies are being used. This will be enhanced by the use of Big Data in procurement, logistics and customer service, helping the process become much more efficient.

We will see this space grow as more and more firms realise the potential of technology to transform their businesses.

With the real estate sector emerging from significant turbulence both for buyers and sellers, technology has the potential to make the sector a lot more efficient and significantly enhance customer and user experience. We may not be getting flying cars anytime soon but the future of real estate with technological intervention looks very positive.

(The writer is Founder and CEO of BuildSupply)