Focus on Asia

New Real Estate Tech Era

By Joel Nelson on Jan 5, 2018 in News

Reliance on spreadsheets and manual processes in Asia will likely fade as investors and technology providers lay the groundwork for sweeping modernization, according to a recent survey of technology adoption in the region’s real estate industry.

Yardi sponsored the survey and subsequent report on current and anticipated technology applications by real estate investment firms, developers and service providers in Asia.  Chinese real estate business intelligence source Mingtiandi completed the survey and report, which describes the region’s real estate’s current technology adoption as “firmly in the PC age,” with “significant reliance on manual methods for collecting and storing data” that makes it “slow to make the jump to database-enabled online solutions that can respond to marketing, analysis and property management challenges.”

While companies have some systems in place, “the majority [of respondents] still see the Asian region in general, and the real estate industry specifically, as lagging world trends.”

Key findings from the survey, the majority of whose respondents work in China, Hong Kong and Singapore:

• More than 55% of respondents perceive Asia as trailing the West in the adoption of technology within the real estate industry; less than 12% saw the region as the leader
• Almost 77% regard real estate as trailing other industries in technology adoption; less than 6% regard property companies as leaders
• More than 83% consider access to information a competitive necessity
• More than 42% manage leasing, sales and property management on spreadsheets
• 43% identify internal resistance to change as the single largest barrier to adopting online tools for improving workflows and streamlining operations

Asked to identify their priorities, more than half of respondents want better information on deal-related data.  Forty-two percent listed access to leasing information and more than 35% identified better access to client contact information.

‘The results of this survey paint a picture of both opportunity and challenge – the market now recognises the problem but is not confident in the steps to take to achieve change successfully. At Yardi, we focus on helping clients understand the steps they need to take and the tools they can use to successfully transform their leasing and property management business,” said Bernie Devine, regional director for Yardi’s Asia Sales team.

Opportunity Beckons

This environment and a burgeoning real estate investment market—which grew by $867 billion in China, Hong Kong and Singapore 2016, according to the report—has produced fertile ground for creating new, more efficient real estate systems.

With real estate and related sectors accounting for up to 20% of gross domestic product in China alone, technology has become a top target for entrepreneurs and investors. Asian Pacific real estate technology provider startups, which have raised almost $5 billion since 2013, are creating new systems for bringing efficiency in property listing and search services, market data and analytics compilation.

As a result, “the concentration of resources in developing software solutions for real estate problems is rapidly bringing down barriers to adoption,” making it likely that “the trajectory of tech adoption in Asia’s real estate industry may be … set to a new course.”  The report says the sector is already moving quickly to develop “more powerful tools to assist occupiers, investors and other industry players.”

Future Mingtiandi surveys will track the progress of real estate technology adoption in Asia.

For more information on trends in Asian real estate technology adoption, download the Mingtiandi report