Proptech Aims to Help Manage Commercial Real Estate in Pandemic Era

As contactless business practices become the norm, building owners and managers are turning to property technology, or proptech, to successfully navigate the pandemic — from a safe distance.

Proptech systems were already seeing increased adoption prior to remote interactions becoming the norm. In fact, at the end of last year Deloitte's 2020 CRE Outlook report showed that 92% of property owners and investors planned to maintain or increase tenant experience-related technology investments over the next 18 months. The report also found that executives realize that Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence are not only important in boosting the tenant experience, but also key to raising operational efficiency and lowering operational expenses.

While tech adoption in the real estate industry has generally been slow, proptech solutions have been around for years. Complex building management systems and even consumer-facing smart home devices like Google Nest all fall under the umbrella of proptech. But for those investing and managing commercial properties, there have traditionally been fewer options and less demand.

In this time of uncertainty and economic crisis, the stakes are higher for property owners, and proptech companies are pushing out digital tools that can help tackle expensive and sensitive problems before they happen. Not surprisingly, the pandemic has rocketed CRE proptech companies like HqO, Openpath, Spaceti, and Aquicore to the forefront as some businesses try to reopen and property owners turn to touchless tech solutions for safety, security and operational efficiency.

Innovative proptech platforms like these are leveraging AI, machine learning, blockchain, and data analytics, often coupled with IoT sensors, to offer a wide array of features, including spatial monitoring, optimizing indoor environmental conditions, securing building access, and property cleaning.

"Newer technologies, such as touchless entry and occupancy management, have moved from a 'nice to have' to a 'need to have.'"

Openpath President James Segil

By providing real-time insight and analysis, proptech tools are giving property owners and managers remote, real-time access to a clearly presented overview of building occupancy and operations — and the ability to react more effectively to both urgent situations and routine tenant needs.

Many proptech companies are dedicated to digital solutions for tenant experience — a sector that has dramatically shifted due to the pandemic. Proptech firm Openpath, for instance, recently added a feature to its cloud-based platform that allows touchless entry with the wave of a hand in front of a reader. This enhances the company's existing suite of safety and wellness tools via partner integrations, which offer features like automated contact tracing, daily health and symptom attestation, automated occupancy threshold management, and thermal cameras for fever detection.

Workplace adjustments like hybrid work schedules and hub-and-spoke office strategies “require cloud-based tools, remote management capabilities, and flexible mobile credentials that can be adjusted on the fly," explained Openpath President James Segil. “Mobile and cloud-based solutions were already a continuous trend, but many of the conveniences of newer technologies, such as touchless entry and occupancy management, have moved from a 'nice to have' to a 'need to have.'"

The workspace management platform from Spaceti also offers solutions for working in the era of COVID-19. Managers can set up bookable work zones to enforce social distancing guidelines and also monitor contact tracing data, while an air quality management tool allows employees to check the current levels of CO2, humidity, and temperature at any time and make or request necessary adjustments.

Tenant experience platform HqO provides owners and managers of commercial buildings with a combination of asset strategy and portfolio optimization driven by real-time data from tenants. As companies began to bring employees back to work, the proptech startup released HqOS in June, an operating system that includes a slew of contactless features, including touchless access control, enhanced health screening, electronic document management, services booking, work order requests, property management tools, and payment functionality.

Another major sector of proptech is dedicated to operational efficiency — still as important, if not more so since the beginning of the pandemic — which has caused budgets to tighten. One example is Aquicore's cloud-based performance optimization platform, which combines AI and machine learning with IoT sensors to scan real-time building data to detect changes in energy usage and diagnose and predict operational problems. Building staff is alerted to any anomalies, while property owners and managers receive a financial impact report — sets of information that could help avoid the need for costly repairs and save big on utility bills.

The deployment of new technology never comes without a learning curve. Jacinda Lofland, director of strategy and innovation at Nuveen Real Estate, a client of HqO, acknowledges this, but noted that having the right partners to support the process is key.

“As intuitive as technologies like HqO are, all implementations require an initial change in behaviors," Lofland said, adding that HqO's implementation and account management teams offered resources like QR codes and quick video tutorials to reduce friction during the transition."True integrations are engineering- and time-intensive, but what is great about tenant apps is that we can continue to integrate more functionality into the back end — like facility requests, visitor management, and touchless access — while still providing a consistent, mobile-friendly interface for tenants on the front end."

Of course, where there is a digital tool, there is the concern of cybersecurity. As Chase Garbarino, CEO and co-founder of HqO, advised: “Building owners and app users should be concerned about who has access to that personal data and how it will be used. This means that it's extremely important to choose well-established technology vendors who have clear data security, privacy policies, and procedures to protect that data."