Kylie Davis says proptech, data and high-tech innovation will help investors navigate and succeed in their property journey.
Kylie is the founding president of the Proptech Association of Australia where she’s recognised as the leading global expert on the Australian proptech landscape.
On the Get Invested podcast, Kylie provided valuable insights on the tech-driven opportunities opening up within the property industry.
Proptech trends in Australian property
Kylie discussed the technological and behavioural trends which are changing and shaping how property in real estate is being practiced both now and in the future.
“They start off with big data. Big data has been a trend for the last five years, but where we’re at with data now is that we’re past that tipping point. As a society, we have created more data in the last two years than we created for our whole entire history, and everything that we do now has a data trail that goes behind us and pretty much follows us all individually. So what we’re seeing is the assembling of that and then sitting that over the top of very big property data sets that already exist. So in that sales and marketing and property ownership space, we’re seeing the change of inference and an emphasis being not on what the property does, but on who are the people in that property, how they are using that property, and therefore how that property is behaving,” she said.
“We’re also seeing the rise of the property being almost like a data generator. So we’ve traditionally always thought of property as a fixed dead asset, like it’s an inanimate object. But increasingly, through the rise of the Internet of Things and through drone technology and virtual digital twin technology, literally every single screw, nail and piece of material in the properties that we own is a piece of data that we’re starting to get greater visibility over. Then, because we’re getting greater visibility over that data for the objects that exist in the property data world, and because we have great data sets around mapping and all of that, they’re starting to come together so that the planning regulation is starting to be digitized and we’re starting to see those gaps build. One of the slowest parts of our industry to digitize and transform though is actually the building sector, so a lot of work to be done. They’re the missing link at the moment.”
Proptech’s influence on Australian property investors
With the property investor space growing rapidly, there are a number of proptech innovations and apps emerging in the space.
“A lot of it comes around that ability for property investors to both understand and manage their assets. So what’s my portfolio look like, what needs to be done to it, what’s the value of it, and how does that compare to last year or five years ago? Then there’s also the technology to help you build your own plan, your own investing strategy, and then to analyse the data to work out where to buy next, what to look for, and alerts to properties that might fit the bill. And I think what they’re doing is they’re providing you with that access to data that, previously, you needed to have seven or eight different subscriptions for and you’d have to build a spreadsheet and do all sorts of stuff. But now we’re seeing some very smart apps around that. Property Dollar is one, there’s a new one coming out called Scale Up, and they’re designed to help you understand how to pull together the money that you need to start to build your portfolio, and how much you’re going to need and what you should be looking at to invest in,” Kylie said.
“What we’re seeing though too in this space is that kind of functionality starting to move out more into the first home buyer space too, addressing how do I save for my deposit, and how do I now start to see what’s going to come next. If I decide to upgrade my rent, what does that impact on my savings, how long is it going to take me to get this deposit together, and all of that sort of stuff.”
Proptech in the predictive space
Kylie revealed the missing data sets which would substantially impact predictive analytics in the property market.
“So the bigger the data sets get, the more useful they become for predictive analytics and throwing it forward. One of the missing data sets that exists in the industry is the new builds in more real time, so we see more build data coming out still quarterly, which is too slow, so we actually need greater transparency around what’s coming on to the market, what’s been started, what’s been completed, what’s on market now, and what’s been approved. We need to see that coming through more quickly,” she said.
“Also around house and land sales, we need a lot more transparency around what’s going on in that sector because that has always been a bit of a closed box as well. So once we start to see those data sets, we’ll then start to be able to predict a lot more on what future supply looks like, or what future supply is coming onto the market. So then you’ll be able to see, when is this monster apartment block due to be completed in my suburb, therefore what’s that going to do to my walk-up investment unit in the are and how is it going to impact on that. So we’ll start to see those numbers beating through more reliably.”
Listen to the full interview here.
Want to Know How you can build wealth and optimise your property finance with the help of leading, qualified experts? Check us out and talk to the team, now.
