Real estate businesses have been impacted drastically as COVID-19’s consequences are felt globally. Real estate executives are worried about maintaining value and liquidity in the near future, keeping visitors and residents safe, including additional cleaning procedures, and adhering to federal agency standards. However, the real estate market will change as new trends take hold in the post-covid era. In this blog, let’s talk about how the real estate industry has adapted to the new norms post-covid.
Impact of Covid-19 on Real Estate Market
It is very obvious that the COVID-19 crisis heavily impacted the real estate market. Due to the pandemic, many households are reevaluating their housing requirements because their homes have replaced offices, schools, and restaurants. Before the year 2020, commercial real estate was thought to be a late adoption of new technologies.
Despite IoT adoption taking place in the creation of smart cities and smart building technologies making gradual but steady inroads in the sector, this was the case. The pandemic forced severe commercial disruption throughout the world, and it also forced the real estate sector to take action to investigate technology-based solutions like never before and remain relevant in the new normal. More emphasis on providing touchless service across all customer touchpoints, creating spaces for maintaining social distance from a safety perspective, and other factors led to the introduction of new solutions in commercial buildings and retail.
Role of technology in the Real Estate Industry
Every part of the organization, from sales and marketing to leasing and data administration, is quickly adopting new technologies and creative solutions. All brands have started to make this move, and the real estate industry is no exception. Real estate transactions have begun to be completed online as the majority of clients are enquiring and interacting online. Going digital improves customer targeting and makes it easy to engage with potential customers, which can speed up the closing of sales. Other digital advances include chatbots with AI integration and video walkthroughs, which streamline and seamlessly integrate the already complicated and time-consuming process of the complete purchasing and selling cycle.
Modern real estate developers must adopt cutting-edge technology-driven infrastructure and be future-ready if they want their projects to be quickly shortlisted and draw in both individual and institutional investors. The forward-thinking real estate firms are quickly emerging as torchbearers in recognizing the current upheaval and altering the real estate industry’s current rules.
Current status of the real estate market
- The majority of building owners and developers now have significant investment plans to make sure their constructions have various touchless technology features. Some of them are touchless elevator access, face detection and recognition systems to enter and leave commercial office buildings, touchless intelligent parking management systems, no-contact valet solutions, etc.
- Additionally, there has been a significant advancement in the F&B sector in the area of contactless eating and delivery.
- All consumer needs and desires are now addressed, albeit in novel ways, due to contactless service delivered through online platforms and every other customer touchpoint.
- In addition to increasing process efficiency and accelerating reach to the target audience, these technology-based solutions and automation have also improved the general customer experience.
Recent New Normal Trends in the Real Estate Industry
Contact-less spaces
Businesses are highly anticipated to implement contactless solutions in the real estate sector since the term has already gained popularity during the covid pandemic. As a result, there may be an increase in demand for contactless door entry solutions in the future. In order to reduce human contact, contactless elevator control technology will also be in demand in the future. People would feel more secure and confident if contactless technology were implemented in elevators and commercial settings, such as when entering and leaving the office. Additionally, employees that are in better health have lower absenteeism rates and higher output rates.
Incorporating IoT technologies
To describe it simply, the Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that enables items to connect through the internet and exchange data with one another. IoT is unquestionably changing the real estate sector post covid with the development of the idea of smart cities. Smart buildings are evolving into the new norm for industrial participants as IoT technology proliferates. This would enable the automation of many building functions, including ventilation, security, and lighting, and the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle. Numerous modern start-ups are developing creative, cost-effective solutions that can be incorporated into the neighborhood’s existing structures.
Usage of AI and ML Techniques
The IoT in buildings makes it simple to handle a variety of building-related data, including electricity consumption, occupancy data, and temperature data. In fact, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms can identify cost-saving opportunities or detect patterns of failure. The manner buyers, sellers, brokers, and other real estate stakeholders conduct their business is being completely altered by AI and ML technology.
Virtual Home Tours
According to a statement made by Matterport long back, “78% of home buyers admit that they are choosing to visit more properties digitally via 3D tours due to safety concerns.” In addition, “69% of house sellers now feel that 3D tours are essential,” despite not previously believing them to be so. However, in contrast to prior years, iGUIDE has noticed a 400% growth in real estate virtual tours. Virtual tours will continue to exist even after the pandemic because they have made home browsing much simpler and saved the actual visit for buyers’ shortlists.
Virtual Home Staging
Brokers and real estate agents spend a lot of time and money staging properties since an empty house doesn’t show off a home’s actual potential. A National Association of Realtors Research Group found that 47% of buyers mentioned that house staging affected how most purchasers saw the property. Virtual staging is much faster, allows for any environment, and eliminates the need for props. Properties that have been virtually staged have been shown to sell 73% quicker than unstaged ones.
Process Automation
It refers to the use of software or automation tools to automate routine office operations that don’t call for significant decision-making. Data collection about purchasers and sellers, data maintenance, and data monitoring procedures are additional typical clerical duties that can be automated through the use of automation tools. Real estate will be able to survive in this technologically advanced world and establish a comfortable position for itself among the competition due to these advancements and innovations.
Conclusion
In the contemporary business world, investor interest is increasing in the technology employed in building interactions and real estate developments. The aforementioned trends are just a few instances of how new technology is permeating the real estate sector post covid. Investors will need to keep track of the new opportunities brought about by technology and the businesses that are best utilizing them as they decide what investment objectives to pursue.