{"id":51556,"date":"2023-05-17T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yardi.co.uk\/?p=16231"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:27:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:27:48","slug":"the-real-estate-industry-does-not-need-any-more-proptechs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/en-gb\/the-real-estate-industry-does-not-need-any-more-proptechs\/","title":{"rendered":"The real estate industry does not need any more proptechs"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published on May 17, 2023 in German on immobilienmanager.de, COMPANIES & MINDS\u00a0\u201cNo more proptechs are needed\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Richard Gerritsen from Yardi puts forward a bold thesis.\u00a0Does the real estate industry really have enough proptechs yet?\u00a0What is behind the statement?\u00a0Fear of competition?\u00a0Andr\u00e9 Eberhard from immobilienmanager spoke to him.<\/p>\n

You are of the opinion that the real estate industry does not need any more proptechs. How do you come to this opinion?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\"\u201cMore<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Let me make sure that I make myself clear. In order to innovate, to transform, the real estate industry doesn\u2019t need more proptechs. There is a lot of technology currently available to significantly transform the industry. The real estate sector needs more vision on the transformation of the industry. The tech side to facilitate this transformation is not the limiting factor.<\/p>\n

Let me use an example \u2013 my father is 78 and uses an iPhone 8 \u2013 and he\u2019s happy with it. He does what he has always done and uses it to make phone calls. This is how I look at the real estate industry, you can give my father an iPhone 15 and he\u2019ll do what he\u2019s doing right now with his iPhone 8 and make phone calls.<\/p>\n

My father lacks the vision as well as the need to transform. The industry, however, is in a situation where significant transformation is required across a lot of different asset classes, if not the industry as a whole. What they need is a vision for a fundamental change in how real estate is being managed \u2013 the real estate industry doesn\u2019t need a new iPhone.<\/p>\n

If the real estate industry doesn\u2019t have a vision with the technology currently available, it doesn\u2019t make sense to come up with more proptechs. We can talk all day about artificial intelligence, but if the industry is struggling with the data currently available \u2013 perhaps because it is not available to them, not complete, or it\u2019s not able to trust the quality of the data \u2013 it doesn\u2019t make sense to talk about \u201cthe iPhone 15\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gerritsen, talk is cheap. Your company has been active in the real estate market with software solutions for decades. Are you afraid of competition?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s the contrary \u2013 we welcome strong competition because it also helps us to remain focused on facilitating the transformation of our clients. More importantly, it helps in creating awareness in the industry. As I said, the iPhone 15 can be released tomorrow, but if the user doesn\u2019t change how they use technology, there\u2019s no real demand for new technology. If you\u2019re not changing your behaviour and your use of technology, you can introduce all the new tech and innovations in the world, but the same thing will happen \u2013 they will not be deployed, they won\u2019t be used and they won\u2019t be understood.<\/p>\n

Won’t the economic crisis inevitably clean up the market?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It depends. Is it a short-term event that will normalise in the foreseeable future, or is it a catalyst to something else? It has normalised that people are working from home. As we know, before 2020, office workers would be in the office four to five days a week. That has fundamentally changed. So, when we talk about the clean-up of the market or the changing of the market \u2013 it is not necessarily due to the economic crisis, but it has been a catalyst of a development that was already taking place.<\/p>\n

What we foresee is a larger fundamental change in how end users of offices are using the space and therefore how tenants of office space will be committing to lease obligations. There\u2019s research that shows around 10-15% of office users do not need to be in the office to do their work and around 35% that need to be in the office. That leaves about 50% of office workers that don\u2019t really need to be in the office, but also can\u2019t do all of their work from home \u2013 that\u2019s where the fundamental shift is.<\/p>\n

Office workers don\u2019t need as much space anymore, which leads to businesses changing their leases \u2013 do they want to commit to a long-term lease if half of the office will be working from home several days per week. This results in a significant shift in how, and more importantly when, end-users are using office space. The tech to facilitate this is already available. What I don\u2019t see yet are landlords adapting to this new reality on a bigger scale.<\/p>\n

What proptechs are needed, anyway?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I think proptechs that focused on servicing tenants and their end-users will become very important. Tenants expect more from the technology they are using and the offices they work in. They have become accustomed to working from home, so if they go to the office, they want a better experience.<\/p>\n

Investment managers are interested in the end-users, but it will be an underlying part of understanding the use of office space and whether it is a good idea to invest \u2013 and when you have invested, how does it need to be managed. For example, if you are looking to fill 10,000 or 100,000 square meters of office space, will you be looking for a tenant who will sign a 10-year lease, or will transition to a flexible workspace, or even a combination of both?<\/p>\n

Proptechs that focus on the tenant and providing a good service is what the industry needs. It is about utilising a solution that provides automation and assists with your everyday so you can provide your tenants with a better customer journey.<\/p>\n

What the industry needs is a one-stop-shop for the big topics in the industry. Will there ever be one?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019m not sure if a \u201cone-stop-shop” for all big topics is realistic. Yardi aims to be one for all topics related to innovation and technology. In the last 15 years, we have evolved from a property management software provider to a cloud services company for real estate investment and asset management. Our own transformation included using our product and service portfolio from back-office to front-office real estate professionals. It is no longer the ultimate goal to provide back-office professionals with functionality to do their work efficiently and effectively. Back-office data and functionality have become a means to service our key client base \u2013 investment and asset managers. We have been growing year on year by 15-25% since inception. We have ambitious growth-targets to develop our transition further, but this one-stop-shop will only be for topics related to technology for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First published on May 17, 2023 in German on immobilienmanager.de, COMPANIES & MINDS\u00a0\u201cNo more proptechs are needed\u201d Richard Gerritsen from Yardi puts forward a bold thesis.\u00a0Does the real estate industry really have enough proptechs yet?\u00a0What is behind the statement?\u00a0Fear of competition?\u00a0Andr\u00e9 Eberhard from immobilienmanager spoke to him. You are of the opinion that the real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":897,"featured_media":51123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3463,3387,3386,3478,3467],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asset-management-en-gb","category-commercial","category-investment-management","category-office","category-retail"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yardi's Richard Gerritsen talks to Andr\u00e9 Eberhard from immobilienmanager to discuss why more proptechs are not currently needed in real estate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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