We are all witnesses to how technology changed the way modern real estate market operates, and the only question left unanswered is just how much it changed its course. Without a doubt, technology has revolutionized our everyday lives, changing the way we communicate, shop, work, eat, socialize and entertain. Some industries didn’t feel the impact to its core, and as the newlywed NYC real estate star Adam Hochfelder shares, commercial real estate generally functions as it always has.
To a certain extent, this is the case, as the global structure of the market has remained unchanged. Private companies still have the biggest percentage of ownership, and the metrics by which real estate is measured such as price per square foot and occupancy, are also relatively undisturbed. But on the other hand, experts like Hochfelder, who have long been in this industry, claim that there has been a major transformation in the industry. While a couple of years ago, business deals were sealed on country clubs napkins, now with technology at its full swing, there have been significant improvements in the data availability. Technology has not only given access to investors, but it has also helped property owners manage their assets better and more efficiently.
Yet, apart from this improvement, according to Hochfelder, the most obvious way technology has developed real estate is in the collection and distribution of information. At both property and market level, information has increasingly become more available, from mainstream providers and new technology as well. Although in the past there were some services that provide data, still in the recent year we have seen an incredible improvement in the amount of information they gather and the way it is disseminated. Now sophisticated software gives subscribers fast, easy and customized access to information that wasn’t available a few years back. Technology has also helped users make better investment decisions by giving more accurate property-level information and thus assessment of markets and submarkets. The data revolution is yet to be seen, says Adam Hochfelder, former real estate executive and current Managing Director of Real Estate Acquisitions & Development at Merchants Hospitality, advising companies to improve their use of technology, as it is something that won’t be disappearing any time soon.
Adam has been awarded as one of the top 5 high-profile humanitarians at the Thrive Network.