Audrey
The world is on the brink of terror never seen before. COVID-19 has threatened our lives and lifestyle, within the span of half- an-year! Many industries and industry leaders have been severely impacted by the virus, resulting in the global decrease in trade and commerce.
The lockdowns and the quarantine periods endured by the whole world into an unknown realm. Luckily Technology came to the rescue of the stranded and stressed individuals across the planet. Technology, especially web-related services, has given wings to some of the often looked down sectors such as online education, OTTs, etc., and made it the norm!
It has also given a boost to several wounded industries a chance to push themselves to the forefront. Real estate is one such sector that has resurrected itself from the current crisis. Real Estate Technology, especially Proptech (Property Technology), has evolved to cater to the common man without losing its status quo as the largest asset class in the world.
Technological Advancement of Real Estate
Though the seeds were sown much earlier at the beginning of the 2000s, the sector has been rather shy to exploit them other than the property listing websites. Granted, the late 2019s has rolled it onto a spree where it opened up to the latest advancements and innovations. However, coronavirus cemented the deal. Now it’s one faster pace to implement some, and the rest has already become mainstream!
1) Virtual Reality
Virtual reality, as well as augmented reality, has been in the game for a while now. Though they have been more into the gaming and entertainment section, real Estate has used them to a fair point of advantage, primarily through virtual Site visits and walkthroughs. This has been rather popular lately due to COVID, and the restricted travel and human interaction. Virtual tours often deliver variables that the customers do not receive during site visits.
2) Investment Predictions
Data Analytics was already a mainstream part of real Estate since 2018, and the heat maps, which lead to the investment predictions of a particular locality. In the current era, investment in land is seen as a worthwhile project compared to other options in the liquid asset classes. This is mainly because a home now is also seen as a safe haven that shelters one from the disease.
3) Home Automation and IoT
Home automation may seem to be the odd one here. It falls more onto an entertainment and home decor sphere than the traditional real estate sector. However, there has been a surge in demand for the houses for both rent and buy, which has a home automation facility. The forced lockdown increased the time that the populace spent inside the home. Naturally, a sense of comfort and convenience has taken over humanity.
The concern of safety has played an important role. Home automation also ensures heightened security detail, including anti-burglar techniques and reinforced locks. This, along with the added option of a personalized workspace, sealed the deal.Though all of this has a major part, which mostly affected the real estate sales, especially of the residential segment, is real estate digital marketing.
When the real world was locked down, the people went into the digital world. It is widely said that April, May and June months of 2020 amount to the highest rate of traffic on the internet since its inception. This was when most of the countries around the world went into lockdown.
Thus salesmanship had to arouse the digital audience much more than it usually did. And what happened after was the rise of digital campaigns across the search engines and social media platforms. The realtors and developers, instead of merely pitching out their products started to enlighten the audience about the trends of investing in real estate.
Many developers portrayed the real problems they had to face because of the lockdown, including the lack of resources and raw materials and the need to increase the prices of projects that are under construction.
Real estate is the largest asset class globally, often standing tall, accessible only to the elites is the popular notion. However, this was turned over during these last few months as the sector reached out to a broader and younger audience, who will hold the reigns to the future.
Investing in Real Estate has become a trend among the youth with extensive online advertising and awareness campaigns to own a home and gain financial independence. The campaigns also extensively used content marketing to educate the populace about the loans and taxes one has to incur.
Thus just as mutual funds captured the audience during the second half of the 2010s, realty now jumped onto the bandwagon.
Real Estate, thus incorporating technology, has both redeemed and resurrected itself during the troubled times and awaits a brighter future, where it has an unprecedented edge.
