The changing face of real estate and how it leverages technology

Abstract

This paper identifies some of the challenges that the world of real estate faces today. The business world is changing at an ever increasing pace, and real estate companies are no exception. The challenges being faced today have a profound impact on the very survival of real estate organisations. Being able to identify risks in order to mitigate their impact, as well as finding opportunities that would be advantageous and profitable to any real estate company, are critical to its success. Many of the external challenges are beyond the control of the organisation such as government regulation, socio-political events and general market conditions. However, many of the challenges such as the quality and timeliness of information and the streamlining of business processes can be controlled and resolved by resources within the real estate organisation. Besides the commonly known challenges, new risks are emerging that are beginning to exert their influence on real estate companies and will continue to exert pressure on them in the future. As a result real estate companies are being prompted to look to technology as part of the solution to improve internal efficiencies and effectiveness. Technological solutions have become an essential part of a real estate company's toolset in order to keep pace with rapidly evolving conditions and stay ahead of competitors. Finally a new technological vision of the real estate company is presented. Some of the capabilities and functionality that real estate companies require to meet the challenges of today and the future are identified.