The past year will remain in the real estate market not only as the year of the pandemic but also as the time of the global technological upgrade of the entire industry. Restrictive measures have become the challenge that motivated developers to accelerate the introduction of innovations. They covered almost the entire chain of the construction business – from comprehensive analytics of a future project to tools for remote execution of transactions.
In 2021, the importance of modern technologies in the construction industry has increased significantly. Thus, BIM design and smart systems that control the operation of utilities have become quite widespread. But the pandemic has given impetus to the deployment of a whole range of digital infrastructure, accelerating this process by at least three to four years. The Urban Awards Organizing Committee conducted a survey of leading developers known for the active use of innovative technologies in their practice and identified five main drivers of technological development that will change the real estate industry in the near future.
Table of Contents
#1 – Advanced Product Visualization
Among the tasks that employees of sales departments are faced with is the creation of a complete image of the real estate object for the potential buyer. After all, apartments are often sold long before they have walls, floors, and ceilings. But a customer wants to see an accurate project visualization even before the building is ready. A couple of years ago, it was enough to show a couple of images and renders. However, during the pandemic, it became necessary to create as perfect a visualization as possible. It should allow a potential buyer to evaluate the advantage of a new building virtually without leaving one’s home. This is where virtual staging solutions from Spotlessagency come in handy.
#2 – Online Stores & Mobile applications
More and more goods and services can be purchased through mobile applications. In this case, apartments are a natural development of the process that started with food delivery or online shopping for essential goods. Under the pressure of the pandemic, developers were forced to speed up the processes of deploying virtual stores since remote processing of transactions turned out to be the only way to continue selling housing.
If earlier the components of this process (online booking and online demonstration of objects) were just an additional option, now online sales have become a full-fledged implementation tool. The customer audience quickly appreciated this option. Distance selling has become part of a global trend to reduce the time spent on any purchase, including housing. Thus, according to the corporate stats of FGC Construction, 40% of all real estate objects are booked through online mechanisms already. Developers have optimized the transaction registration procedure to the utmost, reducing the buyer’s participation in it to a few simple steps that can be conveniently performed using a smartphone.
Besides that, Pioneer Group of Companies launched an option with a “personal account” on the websites of all its projects. Having entered it, a buyer can book any product, choose the payment format, and provide one’s personal data. Payment is carried out using the technology of Internet acquiring. Through a personal account of a buyer, the parties exchange the necessary documents, and a customer signs a contract of equity participation online using an electronic digital signature. Moreover, the issuance of a digital signature also becomes an additional service that the developer undertakes.
#3 – Advanced Online Analytics & Dynamic Pricing
The creation of the structure of electronic sales became a prerequisite for the modernization of the entire product analytics system. It is to deal with and process a gigantic array of data covering information on many parameters. The FGC Group of Companies created a special corporate warehouse for its aggregation. The implementation of the BI (Business Intelligence) system made it possible to quickly convert raw information into a meaningful analytical model. Such a set of tools allows you to find out the real demand for a product and use it as the basis for dynamic pricing.
#4 – Online Constructors
Digitalization makes the development product more flexible and personalized. In particular, using the designer posted on the website of the residential complex, a customer can independently set all the key characteristics of the future design project of one’s apartment, relying on the set of options that the developer has to offer. At the same time, a customer can find out how much the finishing option will cost and how this will increase the cost of housing. FGC Group of Companies is already using this technology in two of their projects.
#5 – CRM and Process Robotization
CRM systems allow you to raise customer service to a new level, providing complex data processing and producing high-quality analytics on its basis. Thus, you can effectively regulate all aspects of customer relationships:
- Accepting and processing applications;
- Distributing tasks;
- Debugging communication;
- Organizing mailings;
- Financial accounting;
- Generating the necessary documents.
Pioneer Group of Companies develops an information web-booklet for each new project and sends a link to it by SMS notification from the CRM database. By visiting a showroom, a customer is automatically sent a personal commercial offer and can see a presentation with a detailed description of the selected object and its cost.
Until now, information about projects did not form a single information array in many companies. It was divided into several isolated sources. Meanwhile, the integration of the entire volume of documentation into a single library with convenient and safe access for all specialists is an urgent need for a modern developer. This approach drastically simplifies organizing, editing, and transferring data. And this, in turn, allows not only to reduce the cost of drawing up design, permits, and accompanying documentation. It also leads to the formation of a single digital circuit, which covers all processes associated with the developer, the management company, and the tenants themselves.
Summary
All the above innovative blocks can become key points in the technological transformation of the construction industry. So if you want to achieve success in your business area and become a market leader, then it is the right time to introduce new solutions and technologies.