The App Economy

Room for growth in real estate

By Erica Rascón on Jun 8, 2012 in Technology

Ever wondered how apps – those fun little programs on your iPhone, iPad or Android that do cool things like provide your bank balance, tell you when your mortgage is due or give you the latest local weather forecast – have influenced our tech economy?

Studies show that application development is quantifiable as its own economy. Last year, it was determined by analyst Michael Mandel (published by TechNet), that the app market has added 466,000 jobs to the US economy since 2007. That number has surely increased by tens of thousands in the last 12 months, as Mandel called app development a “job leader” in America’s continuing post-recession recovery.

While apps are only a small fraction of the technology industry, they represent one of the fastest growing new fields. For iPhone and iPads alone, there are over 500,000 apps serving over 845 million users, numbers that are growing daily. Tack on the growing number of applications for Android and other devices and the app explosion is exponential.

Zynga has been one poster child for app-driven success since the industry’s nascent stages. The company, which currently employs nearly 3,000 workers, has recently purchased the space needed to add thousands to the workforce in coming years. Fellow San Francisco app company Airbnb is doing the same. These two companies, along with Twitter, and other smaller tech/app creators expanding in the Bay Area have triggered a regional real estate boom that has led to rising rents, low apartment vacancy rates and inflated housing prices. It’s just one regional example of the power the app economy can wield.

Worldwide, enterprising app developers seeking investor funding are pressing forward with the confidence that the industry will only continue to grow, particularly beyond smartphones and tablets. According to Business Insider, annual tablet sales will pass personal computers in three years or less. They quantify apps at a $10 billion market, growing at 100 percent per year.

The transition to using apps for anything and everything – this week I used an app to budget for the coming month, pay my smartphone bill, pick out a movie, and find out when the tide would be out at the beach near my home – is a consumer shift that will continue to evolve.

For the real estate industry, apps are being developed to meet immediate needs like marketing and rent remittance, but that reach is likely to expand quickly as tablet use becomes even more pervasive. The youngest technology users – teens – will have a much different experience than you and I are used to, and it will be app driven. Current products focus mainly on finding real estate to purchase, looking at purchase price or appraisal value data, and other services for the home buyer.

Fast forward five years (or maybe just two) and imagine that you are looking for an apartment. Rather than heading for your bulky desktop and waiting several minutes for the Internet to load up, you’ll access your smartphone or tablet and have instant fast wireless connectivity. Using a search app, you’ll quickly be able to bring up any available apartments in the geographic area you’ve selected.

With the push of a finger you can express an interest in that available apartment unit or request an appointment for a showing. The leasing agent can text you back with an available viewing time, or if you’re searching from out of the area, perhaps you’re ready to start your lease application.

One more finger tap and you’ll be on your way. For residents, the convenience of app-based rent pay, lease renewal and work order submission will be a no-brainer. Designed to simplify our lives, apps should indeed save time and maximize our efficiency.

Apps touching on some of these renting-related tasks already exist, but are yet to be seamless experiences. The app economy will change that. And for property professionals, apps will have different functions. Multifamily IT professionals are just beginning to roll out wholesale adoption of apps for work order tracking, assignment and completion notification.  Many firms are adopting a Bring Your Own Device” protocol and downloading the apps their employees will need to their tablet or smartphone. The selection they have to choose from grows daily.

What apps are you using that pertain to real estate and property management? Has the app economy touched your life in any way?