What is PropTech and why should you be using it for property management?

Real estate is the world’s largest asset class, so real estate technology is often thought of as overlapping with financial technology. Present-day digital real estate technologies could therefore include property management using digital dashboards, smart home technology, research and analytics, listing services/tech-enabled brokerages, mobile applications, residential and commercial lending, 3D-modeling for online portals, automation, crowdfunding real estate projects, shared spaces management, as well as organising, analysing, and extracting key data.

The History of PropTech

Before the rise of PropTech, most sales and residential listings were on print media and real estate offices. As the internet progressed, moving listings onto the digital media became a main focus. This has been incredibly successful, with companies such as Zillow (US) and Zoopla (UK) being in the top listed companies in their respective markets.

The next stage of PropTech focused on making physical spaces more fungible, from holiday homes to storage spaces. A notable example is Airbnb, which has made it possible for property owners to rent out their property for part of the year.

PropTech 3.0 began after property managers and developers were experiencing difficulties with operating numerous sectors using completely unconnected solutions. There was a gap in the market for a fully integrated PropTech solution which could streamline everyday tasks, join up multiple stakeholders, and also generate new insights for more efficient and effective operations, and so Mallcomm was created to meet those needs. 

10 Reasons You Should Be Using PropTech For Property Management 

So you now know what PropTech is, but do you really know why you should be using it to manage your properties? Building community is key to retail estate success. Shopping centres have long served as important epicentres of commerce and community, but the industry faces unique challenges today such as the continued rise of e-commerce and a long path to recovery from COVID-19. The pandemic brought about unprecedented changes that will have a lasting effect on how people live, work, and play. 

Landlords around the world are responding to these challenges as well as tenant and consumer demands by merging physical and digital aspects of property management. Through the adoption of technology that enhances the brand experience, increases engagement with stakeholders, and builds a sense of community, shopping centres can remain competitive in our ever-changing world.

There is no better time than now for real estate leaders to invest in property technology. However, in order to unlock the value and realise the full potential of their assets, it is critical that properties put tenants and shoppers at the centre of the investment. Developing a digital strategy for creating a sense of community should be facilitated with technology partners who are experts in the space. Platforms like Mallcomm take a “space as a service” approach, putting tenants’ needs at the core, increasing collaboration, and allowing teams to achieve operational success together.

Gone are the days of supporting tenants with technology solely for collecting sales data. Through centralised content and communication, Mallcomm creates a unified purpose for tenants, centre employees, partners, and everyone who interacts with the location. It also provides tenants with access to data that adds value to their lease. 

In this rapidly evolving economy, tenant expectations about real estate are shifting. It’s no longer about price and location only – it’s about providing an experience they will sign up for long term. All occupiers in a shopping centre, including retailers, restaurants, grocers, service providers, etc. need more help than ever to be successful. 

However, a tenant-centric mindset requires effort and resources. Through centralised data, real-time updates, reporting, and promotional programming, Mallcomm provides insight-driven, innovative solutions to deliver experience, loyalty, increased sales, and measurable ROI. 

As consumers are increasingly looking for technology-enabled experiences in multiple aspects of their lives, shopping centres are no exception. What has become clear is that landlords and retailers need to work hand in hand to give shoppers a reason to return to malls. And, with tenants seeking access to data at their fingertips, technology solutions like Mallcomm can convert two-way communication to online channels, flipping the landlord-tenant connection from transactional to relational. 

This on-demand world has created a competitive environment where technology-driven solutions are a must for optimising operations and engaging with tenants in new, relationship-building ways. Through technology, landlords and property management teams can earn the trust and loyalty of their customers, in turn, ensuring their assets remain competitive. 

Here’s 10 Reasons Why PropTech Can Help You in Your Property Management:

1. Digitise traditional workflows – Digitising all existing paper based workflow replacing any paper forms required to get access to the property, manage contractors or report issues.
2. Auditing and digital checklists – Simplify daily checks by creating digital checklists to record, save and share via PDF. All included with digital signatures and customizable forms.
3. Track asset maintenance over time – Manage unlimited assets to record issues over time. Assign work orders to engineers and export all data via Excel to get an instant output of your data.
4. Track and manage contractors – Create portals for contractors and vendors to access key information, request access to the property and assign work orders directly for when they are onsite.
5. Integrations and Partner Services – Create a centralised hub for information to connect all your technology systems together. At Mallcomm, we can offer a full API, dynamic URL integrations, SSO and a host of partner integrations to help you get the most from your tech stack.
6. Streamline the collection of your sales data – Retailer sales data comes from a variety of sources in a variety of different formats. Utilise the tools you have to digitise your approach to collection of mass data.
7. Improving communication efficiency – Ability for landlords to share vital information with hundreds of tenants via online channels, which would otherwise be done through printed and hand delivered methods.
8. Targeted, customised communications – Customise communications and interactions based on the message, or the type of audience you needed to reach and having the ability to see which recipients have opened and read the messages.
9. Storing and managing information – With staff turnover in retail high, keeping an accurate list of key contacts in shops, restaurants and attractions is vital in the event of a crisis to ensure the right people can be reached quickly and efficiently.
10. Collect and analyse sustainability data – Thoroughly understand your property and its occupant’s carbon footprint by identifying, analysing and reporting on the energy and waste that is being produced. Use data to inform positive decision making around your sustainability output to ultimately become net zero.

For more information on how Mallcomm can help you, request a demo now, or take a look at how we’ve helped our clients by reading our case studies.