Sunday, 9 February 2020

Proptech Innovation Award 2020 - Apply Now





Apply Now

Digitalisation – addressing the pain points

PropTech Innovation Award 2020 seeks solutions to real estate sector’s most pressing issues / Application phase gets under way
The perspective has changed. Initially, the creativity of emerging digital innovators was marvelled at and their disruptive business models feared, but now proptechs and the established real estate industry players have found a constructive relationship. The expectations are clear on both sides: solutions rather than ideas, tangible benefits rather than ingenious nice to haves.
The PropTech Innovation Award 2020, which is being held for the fourth time and carries prize money of EUR 40,000, reflects this spirit of cooperation. This year, award founders Union Investment and GERMANTECH are looking for concrete answers to the real estate sector’s most pressing issues across six new categories.
“The proptech scene has come of age. More and more solutions are being developed through close engagement with the industry. Our initiative is designed to leverage this new maturity. We’re looking for robust, viable solutions. Our aim is to specifically address major pain points facing us and other relevant players in the sector.”
Jens Wilhelm
Jens Wilhelm, a member of the Management Board of Union Asset Management Holding AG

Six categories, 18 finalists

Under the slogan “Digital Solutions for Urban Places and Spaces”, the PropTech Innovation Award 2020 features the best solutions in the categories Smart and Sustainable Buildings, Efficient Decision Making, Smart Living, Smart Retail, Future Office, and Connected Hospitality. These categories were defined by Union Investment in conjunction with partners from the real estate industry to encapsulate the challenges currently facing the sector.

Save the date: 28 May 2020 in Berlin

The knock-out round, the final round with 18 proptechs and the awards ceremony will take place during the PropTech Innovation Summit on 28 May 2020 at the Kulturbrauerei venue in Berlin. Across six themed sessions running in parallel, the three best proptech companies in each category will have the chance to present their solutions in smaller groups to a specialist audience comprising hotel experts or major portfolio managers, for example.
The winners selected in the six categories will then go head-to-head in front of 400 guests and be judged by an international jury of experts. “The qualifying rounds featuring a total of 18 startups and focusing on a single key issue are a new, exciting platform designed to encourage alliances and develop ideas in direct exchange with the sector,” said Benjamin Rohé, founder of GERMANTECH.
PropTech Innovation Summit
Applications for the PropTech Innovation Award 2020 can be submitted up until 15 February 2020. For further information and access to the application platform, see: www.proptech-innovation.de
The international PropTech Innovation Award is being held by Union Investment and GERMANTECH for the fourth time. More than 500 proptechs from around the world have competed for the high-profile award in previous years. Last year, AI proptech Dabble Automation Intelligence of Germany beat 150 applicants from 48 countries to win the award. Other prize winners since 2017 include innovators such as Bao Living, Voxelgrid, Physee, Spaceti, HiP Interactive, Green City Solutions and Architrave, many of which have successfully established themselves and are now working with well-known companies in the real estate sector.


Saturday, 11 January 2020

Will 2020 be the year blockchain overcomes its hype?


This article is part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

  • In 2019, the focus on blockchain shifted from hype to quality.
  • In 2020, there is an opportunity for blockchain to have a social impact.
  • But projects will only succeed if there is adequate governance and a collaborative approach.


How is your organization spending on blockchain?

Full article available here:

Monday, 12 February 2018

MetaProp New York City Demo Day

Third Annual MetaProp New York City Demo Day Grows with 2017-18 Accelerator Startups



Top executives from Blackstone, which graciously hosted NYC Demo Day, as well as with Ackman Ziff, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Kimco, KPMG, Millennium Partners, Partnership for NYC, REBNY, Related, Savills Studley, Toll Brothers, Warburg Realty and many more.

Here is the summary of the event.




As Blockchain Finds A Foothold Traditional Fintech Plants The Flag

Blockchain seems to be in the news more often than not these days, whether over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, or the burgeoning technology sector using it as a springboard. Such ventures promise “game-changing” solutions to challenges in a variety of industries including financial technology, supply chain logistics as with IBM’s recent initiatives, media, travel bookings and rentals to name a few.


Read the full article on Forbes.

Tuesday, 24 January 2017

PropTech Inovation Award 2017 - Application until 15 March

The PropTech Innovation Award, initiated by Union Investment and German Tech Entrepreneurship Center (GTEC) in Berlin supports new ideas in the use of digital technologies for the real estate economy.

Watch the video (English):

http://realestate.union-investment.com/mainpage/the-company/proptech.html
This is the link to the German version: http://realestate.union-investment.de/startseite-immobilienkunden/das-unternehmen/proptech.html

Sunday, 22 January 2017

How Can Blockchain for Real Estate work?

Blockchain is a much discussed topic in Real Estate, especially in the context of PropTech. Many discussions are around subjects and solutions that can comfortably be solved using "normal" database applications, some even better as Blockchain Databases can be searched comfortably like a "normal" database or even your  Microsoft Excel or Google Sheet.

A Blockchain approach will be helpful when the following answers can be answered with yes:
  1. Do you need a decentralized shared control over the data? A popular example currently making it into the Real Estate world: Shared registry of land titles.
  2. Do the recorded transactions need to be immutable and provide an audit trail? An example waiting to be tackled and probably facing high resistance: Notarization of property contracts.
  3. Is there a physical asset, a digital license for artist creations like digital art or music? Another example is software licenses.
So before thinking about a startup based on Blockchain ideas ask yourself: "Is a Blockchain approach necessary of even helpful?"

Here are two videos that I found very helpful to understand the basic technical processes behind Blockchain technology.

Understand Blockchain in Two Minutes

https://youtu.be/r43LhSUUGTQ

Blockchain 101 - A Visual Demo

https://youtu.be/_160oMzblY8

Friday, 13 January 2017

Blockchain for Real Estate Meetup Berlin 12.01.2017



The Berlin Meetup Blockchain for Real Estate 12.01.2017 was a big success.

Both presentations
Trent Mc Conaghy: How To Identify Blockchain Opportunities in Real Estate
Prof. Katharina Adam: The Challenges of Starting a Blockchain Venture in Real Estate

were full of information on "how to" and "how not to" for either side of the isle, which in this case were "info techies" and "real estate". We actually got along very well, me being a real estate guy. We were in awe of the wealth of information and I still am.


We had a warm welcome at Immoscout24




Trent's information is available on bigchaindb.com and it is fascinating. Only in hindsight after looking at the websites I have become aware that some of the "searchability" and "scalability" of Blockchain is a project and not an upgrading of blockchain but a mimicry of a conventional database acting like blockchain. I am sure it can work if people can believe in the security of it and the processes are transparent which "the project" is working on diligently. More information here:

 

For Katharina's presentation, I have to feel sympathy as you don't see many presentations of things gone wrong. Being a professor at the HTW Berlin she believes in teaching and it was of great value for anyone trying to break barriers. Being German myself  I can appreciate the obstacles she was up against. The project was a shortcut in the property register in a sales process, turning 6 weeks into minutes. Guess what the reply was she received: "Good idea but how dare you question our processes?  That was the end of a promising idea. So beware, coming to Germany you have to reckon with beaurocracy older than, ... well think of some thin really old.

I am looking forward to the next Meetup on "Blockchain for Real Estate" on March 9th.


https://www.meetup.com/Blockchain-for-Real-Estate/