How do we enhance both efficiencies and the customer experience? How do we operate at scale and pace? And how can we compete globally and create better local communities? These are just some of the big questions being answered with the help of property technology, or proptech.
Property is New Zealand’s largest industry, contributing 15% of our economic activity. As a sector, we employ 9% of New Zealand’s workforce and contribute over $41.2 billion to GDP. Improving the efficiency of our industry helps our nation.
Property Council New Zealand has decades of hard data on a host of metrics – from operating expenses to valuations – to guide decision-making and create areas of common ground that drive innovation and impact.
But until now, we’ve lacked access to information which sheds light on the market saturation and acceleration of proptech. This is why Property Council established a new partnership with Yardi. We are proud to launch what we expect will be an annual report that tracks how our industry responds to barriers and embraces the big opportunities in the years ahead.
While it is still early days for proptech adoption in New Zealand, the signs are promising and, in some cases, surprising. From the data, we know many of our nation’s property companies are focused on efficiencies and cost savings through technology.
In fact, the survey suggests that our local property industry is further along the proptech journey than many other markets, notably Australia and parts of Asia.
Why is this? New Zealand is a small market, but Kiwis are a solutions-focused bunch. We are always looking to work smarter; and being small, lean and agile means we can pivot quickly towards new ideas and innovations.
Kiwis also understand that it is not just the big disruptive innovations that change the world. Small, incremental steps, with smart business processes, improve efficiency and deliver significant benefits over time.
This report sets a baseline which demonstrates New Zealand’s property industry is proactive and positive about technology and adoption. Technology, once something ‘over there’, is now clearly at the core of every successful property business.
Resistance to change remains in some pockets of the industry and we can’t afford to be complacent. Now is the time for property leaders to step up the pace of technology adoption, as those who own the data will drive the future of our industry.
