What does the future hold for the real estate industry?

November 24, 2021

Our Unicorn Team, along with our partners BeyondBuild, SpaceOS, EstateOS GmbH, SKS-Kinkel Elektronik GmbH and Sensorberg, participated in this year’s EXPO REAL with our stand, Rethink Real Estate. There were numerous round table discussions with industry experts weighing in on the challenges, current trends and newly developed innovations impacting the branch. It was a great pleasure for us to delve into these stimulating conversations with our partners, mutually inspiring each other to better shape the future of the real estate industry.

About the EXPO REAL

EXPO REAL is Europe’s largest trade show for property and investment, and it’s a central contact point for real estate industry market players worldwide. In addition to a focus on digitalization and its associated innovations, the trade fair mirrors the span of the real estate segment: it features offices, retail spaces, hotels, logistic sites and residential properties, and focuses on all stages of the building life cycle.

The conference program itself provides an in-depth overview regarding trends currently at the forefront of topics such as climate change, transformation and digitalization.

Since 1998, the 3-day trade show for industry professionals has been held annually in October, in the city of Munich, and it’s an important convergence point for the worldwide real estate industry. Being Europe’s largest event centered on property and investment, the EXPO REAL provides ideal conditions for efficient networking and optimally, for customer acquisition.

Why do we need to Rethink Real Estate?

The fast paced digitalization of the world and many of the processes in our environment is forcing the real estate sector to think anew. That’s where keywords like Real Estate Tech, or Property Technology, (PropTech for short) come to mind. The integration of elements and components which previously weren’t associated with the internet is revolutionizing how buildings are being used. PropTech is being talked about a lot in the industry right now, but what is it exactly?

PropTech: defining this modern, innovative term

The most popularly shared view stems from the leading pioneer of the real estate market of the future, namely from James Dearsley. “[It [PropTech]](https://www.unissu.com/proptech-resources/what-is-proptech) describes a movement driving a mentality change within the real estate industry and its consumers regarding technology-driven innovation in the data assembly, transaction, and design of buildings and cities.” The entire real estate sector is being faced with a monumental challenge: megatrends such as digitalization, changing expectations of users and the importance of sustainability, which is being driven by regulatory and societal pressures, plus investors conscious of corporate social responsibility – these are all issues which aren’t going to disappear quickly.

Basically, the term refers to the digital transformation occurring in the property industry and ultimately it’s also become the term for startups which are providing technologically innovative products or new business models to the real estate industry.

How is Unicorn implementing PropTech?

At Unicorn Workspaces, we’re already using systems such as SpaceOS and Sensorberg, which enable uncomplicated and automated usage of offices.

These systems make an all-round usage of the office space possible without having to involve a facility manager. When a meeting room is needed, it can be booked, used and paid for, all via an app. Adeptly using the SpaceOS app and accessing your office digitally helps to ensure a smooth operation of the workspace.

What’s in store for the future?

How the PropTech scene will unfold in a few years or longer-term down the road, and whether we’re going to be confronted near-term with a huge disruption is not foreseeable at this time. However, the PropTech market has been steadily growing since 2012 and today it’s more in demand than ever before. Combining the digital world with the building world so that in twenty or thirty years we’ll have all the opportunities technology provides at our disposal – this is the objective PropTech is pursuing. In the future, the real estate sector will not only be able to build faster and more affordably, but it will also use less resources, thereby becoming more efficient and sustainable, while at the same time becoming easier to operate.