What is #PropTech and how does it work?

What is Proptech 2021

It is not some geeky language that is shared by school leavers sat up in their bedrooms sharing special digits and codes and neither is it some high tech marketing skill that goes way above your head when presented to you (well the build of it may be complicated, but how it is presented certainly isn’t).

Proptech is the change we are seeing within our industry that are making our lives easier and much more rewarding when it comes to finding new valuations and selling / renting property in the UK. There is no challenge for Estate Agents to embrace Proptech and it is in fact more a challenge for the guys behind the Proptech brands to get in front of agencies to showcase what their products and services can do.

Proptech: Breaking the industry into smaller sectors and having the ability to drive more and more of a target audience to each of them meaning that results are better, so there is a very big tick in the ROI box.” Christopher Walkey.

The internet will never catch on was once a famous saying and since that time we have adopted it to such an extent that it is more important to some than communication channels such as radio, telephone and television. In recent years we have had the explosion of social media and being one of the first within our industry to embrace it, I know that it was never really seen as a potential marketing channel in the early days for the property industry… I believe that it is no where near where it can be just yet, so much more to come and nowadays many estate agencies spend a lot of time and their budgets on the likes of Twitter and Facebook etc.

Savills and Proptech Cities? http://www.savills.co.uk/tech-cities/index.html#intro

Innovation (Proptech) we have recently seen enter our industry now automates nearly every step of the UK property buying and selling process eliminating time wasting elements and delivering more precise results by being able to understand each and every client’s needs. How consumers are interacted with such as when, on which device and in which tone, in how much detail and what language can all be defined with advancements in PropTech. We can not (yet) eliminate the need for human driven actions within the industry, but PropTech is learning very quickly how it can deliver results in helping to work alongside people (both industry and consumer) to save valuable time, efforts and money.

You just want to acquire new valuations for your portfolio and sell / rent them out as quickly a possible right? This part of Estate Agency will never change, but Proptech is now filtering into the industry and breaking it all down into parts allowing estate agents to pick and chose the best ‘components’ to help them to drive better results and market share locally.

You may not think that Proptech is actually anything to take note of yet, but London is now seen as one of the central hubs for this new section of the industry and just like those who didn’t take note of the internet or social media, it will creep up behind you and your business will embrace it at some point so just like anything in business, as per the early bird with the worm, being first at something can prove the difference to success and failure or achieving market dominance.

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

Section 21s continue to rise ahead of looming ban

The latest research industry insight from LegalforLandlords Section 21 “no-fault” evictions continued to rise in 2025, increasing by 1.7% following a sharp 20.4% surge the previous year. This sustained growth highlights landlords’ continued reliance on Section 21 notices, raising important questions about how possession will be regained once they are outlawed under the Renters’ Rights Act,…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Rightmove house price data showing a 0.8% month on month increase

Commenting on the latest Rightmove house price data showing a 0.8% month on month increase, Daniel Austin, CEO and co-founder at ASK Partners, said: “Today’s rise in UK house prices points to underlying resilience, but momentum remains constrained by affordability pressures and a ‘higher for longer’ interest rate environment. While recent rate cuts signal easing…
Read More
Breaking News

Canary Wharf tops the London Marathon route

The latest insight from property management specialist Rushbrook & Rathbone has found that E14 is the strongest postcode along the London Marathon route for landlords looking to invest in the capital’s rental market, delivering an estimated average yield of 6.6%. Rushbrook & Rathbone analysed current asking house prices and rents across postcode districts spanning the London…
Read More
Breaking News

46% surge in remortgaging activity in Q1

Stonebridge Mortgage Market Index    Overall mortgage activity rose 24.6% in Q1 while applications for home purchase softened Stonebridge today relaunches its Mortgage Market Briefing as a quarterly Mortgage Market Index   The volume of remortgage applications surged 46% in Q1 prompting overall mortgage activity to jump by a quarter, Stonebridge can reveal. The mortgage…
Read More
Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Housing market remains steady despite higher mortgage rates

The housing market remains steady so far in April despite higher mortgage rates due to global uncertainty. Average new seller asking prices rise by 0.8% (+£2,929) in April to £373,971. This is consistent with February and March, but is below the long-term average for April. The average two‑year fixed rate has risen to 5.42%, from…
Read More
Breaking News

Housing market springs back into life

The latest research by Yopa reveals that as Spring begins, 6.3% more homes are on England’s housing market today compared to the start of the year, with some counties seeing increases of more than 16%, showcasing growing seller confidence in a market that is on the up. Yopa has analysed residential listings data from March…
Read More