Within our industry ‘proptech’ has become the all-encompassing phrase for anything remotely related to real estate that is also remotely related to technology. There are, however, a significant number of other techs which we should all be paying attention to – many of which could have significant application within the real estate sphere.

Agritech (agricultural technology)

Technology has been shaping the food and farming industry for decades as farmers have broadly adopted solutions to make themselves more efficient, whether reducing manual labour or helping to increase yields. Quickly surveying vast areas of crops to ensure optimum conditions is now possible through drones, plus the software to recognise crop growth, or innovations within vertical farming to supply food to large urban areas.

Plantech (planning technology)

Technology has the potential to – and is beginning to – democratise the planning process by helping all those involved in it make better more informed decisions. For example, by using the latest 3D modelling and simulation to review the effect on wind flow of a proposed tower block, employing technology that already helps Formula 1 cars shave those critical milliseconds off their lap times. Other examples include appraising new planning applications in the context of others already approved but not yet built. This is the intention of the smart city platform, Vu.City.

Contech (construction technology)

As plantech deals with the approval of buildings, and the vast amount of building tech is once they’re built, contech sits in the middle, supporting the construction industry to create safer, better buildings, quicker. Coupled with a clear BIM (building information management) strategy from the point of conception, there are numerous benefits throughout the process from planning through to eventual asset management.

Staying on the theme of surveying using drones, there are some great examples of utilising drones and real time surveying to monitor construction progress.

Cretech (commercial real estate technology)

Cretech is a phrase popular in the US but less common in the UK – the subset of ‘proptech’ focussed just on commercial property.

Martech (marketing technology)

Finally, while marketing technology may seem a long way from property technology, there are many innovations happening in this space that are very relevant to the marketing of property – particularly using digital marketing channels such as social media or other digital advertising for the advertisement of properties. We use these across our business to ensure our client’s properties get full exposure.

Whatever the portmanteau and type of tech, across our business we are keeping a watching eye on the innovations both inside and outside property and, most importantly, how these can be adopted to help our clients.

Further information

Read more: Why proptech is relevant to real estate investors