The real estate industry, for the most part, has not been well known for being technology intensive. This nature may soon disappear, however. Data analytics is transforming how real estate companies, customers, and financial institutions do business in this industry.

Create additional value

Traditional property data is becoming a commodity. Anyone with an Internet connection can access basic information about the market and properties. Real estate companies need to provide additional value via highly customised solutions.

Data analytics could potentially transform how the real estate industry meets the needs of its customers. For example, what can a commercial real estate company do when its client wants to move to a new office space? Traditionally, the company would take into account factors like budget, preferred location and space to come up with a list of recommendations. But what if the company can help address other business challenges for the client as well?

One of major challenges for businesses today is to recruit and retain the best talent. So the client would probably prefer a location that is most convenient to all of their employees. Employees can input data of their homes’ locations, movements throughout a typical working day. This data then can be used for analysis, such as spatial mapping. The result is a solution for office space with the optimised location for employees’ daily commute. That new office would potentially bring the additional value of attracting and retaining great talent to the client.

Make smarter decisions

The real estate market has a huge data set of millions of properties and potential individual buyers and sellers. Additionally, there are lots of metadata for each property and customer. Digging through that raw data will give companies the edge over the competition. Companies armed with advanced data analytics can remain competitive by utilising data to find useful insights which allow high level executives to make smarter strategic decisions regarding investment, financial management, sales & marketing, procurement, etc.

The finance aspect of the real estate industry has already adopted data analysis to help investors and financial institutions make wiser decisions. Banks today have much better insight into value of foreclosed properties than they used to do. Risk scoring algorithms is advancing to provide more precise assessment of the properties.

Data analytics allows for customer insights that previously were unheard of. It is capable of presenting a clearer picture of who buys what, when, where, why and how. More importantly, it can predict who will buy or sell their homes in the near future. Such capabilities could dramatically change the way real estate companies approach their customers. Instead of attempting to reach out to a wide audience, companies can target specific people who are most likely to be their customers.

Empower individual customers                  

Advanced analytics benefits not only real estate companies but also individual customers. It creates an unprecedented level of data’s transparency and accessibility for both buyers and sellers. For instance, homeowners could be provided with information about their properties’ potential value, as well as the trend in the future.

Real estate companies that are still doing business in the traditional ways may feel intimidated by such transparency. However, purchasing a home is among the most expensive and personal transactions people make in their lifetimes. Companies that can make the process easier and more informative are more likely to win the customers and drive sales.

Increase online visibility                 

The Internet has become the favourite destination for individual customers when looking for real estate. As a result, real estate agents and professionals need to be more visible online in addition to old-fashioned aggressive sales tactics and advertising campaigns. Data analytics allows agents to understand what visitors are doing when they do online searches. More importantly, the advanced analytics today can produce actionable information in real-time that enables almost daily adjustment of organic or paid efforts.

Business Intelligence (BI) or Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) applications with integrated analytics capability allow companies to get the most out of their data. If you’d like to know more about how Business Intelligence and data analytics could transform your business today, please download the white paper “Going from reactive to proactive – what Business Intelligence means today”.