What Is PropTech and What Does It Mean?
If you’re new to the commercial real estate world, “PropTech” is likely one of the buzzwords you’ve heard thrown around. But what exactly is PropTech, and what does it mean?
Here’s a quick education on what this new-ish term means.
What Does PropTech Mean?
PropTech is a combination of two words and stands for “property technology.” In addition to being easier to type over and over again, PropTech is just catchier than property technology, and it’s become the term of choice to describe the broad landscape of technology used in and around commercial real estate buildings.
Specifically, this tech is usually software that makes up an app and/or platform and integrates with other software or with third parties that develop hardware, such as a mobile access device like HID or Proxy, for example.
Does It Go by Any Other Names?
Yes, actually. Most commonly you’ve probably heard of either “CREtech,” “REtech,” or an expanded version of it. CREtech stands for commercial real estate technology, sometimes simply referred to as real estate technology. Other similar terms that often get looped in with PropTech include FinTech (financial technology) and ConTech (construction technology).
So What Exactly Is PropTech and What Does It Do?
Excellent question, but unfortunately there isn’t one exact, specific answer. In general, PropTech is technology being developed for the property industry, and it uses information technology (IT) to help property owners, property managers, and landlords to make better manage their assets. In short, the goal is to make everything about owning, leasing, or working in a building easier and more efficient.
That also means that it’s not just for those who own and manage real estate, but the people who lease and work in buildings as well. For the everyday employee, having an app for their building is (currently) a relatively unique experience, and allows them to do a very broad array of functions — anything from being a mobile key card to ordering food to visitor registration and beyond. Instead of needing several different apps to make life more efficient, the goal is to integrate everything into one central building app on a resident’s smartphone.
For a property manager, it means collecting data and maintaining the building through once central data portal — the app. Tenants can often do things like make rent/lease payments, submit work orders, and log guests from the app, which becomes much more cumbersome to keep track of when it’s scattered across several different platforms or devices. In return, landlords can do things like send push notifications to alert tenants of building news (“Elevator 3 is closed today due to regular maintenance”), generate interest and awareness in community programming, or partner with local food and retail businesses for cross-functional sales opportunities.
These are just a few of the ways PropTech apps are used, but the goal is always the same: creating a better tenant experience.
Here’s a visual example for reference:
That Looks Really Cool! Why Doesn’t My Office Building Have a PropTech App?
Another great question! While we can’t exactly answer that for you, we can walk you through what HqO does, how we impact and create a positive tenant experience, and how an investment in our PropTech app can increase revenue and valuation for your building.
So what is PropTech? Ultimately it’s what you make of it, but it’s here to make your life easier. If you’re ready to learn more, contact us today and schedule a demo!
Source: https://www.hqo.co/what-is-proptech-and-what-does-it-mean/
