With OfficeBlocks, investors can now access real-time property data and insights from seven more cities across APAC
Most real estate investors are aware of the urgency of making swift, informed decisions when deploying capital, especially amid the strong competition for assets this year. But one problem remains: the lack of transparent information.
Without access to basic data on building attributes such as floor space and rental price, the ability to make well-informed investment decisions may be compromised.
This problem could be further amplified this year as investors rush to deploy a record amount of capital to the tune of US$200 billion, according to JLL’s Asia Pacific Outlook 2022.
In certain less-transparent markets, it is notoriously complex and time-consuming to gather the data and insights necessary to weigh up commercial properties. To overcome this shortage of quality data, investors are increasingly turning to the capabilities of property technology, or proptech.
From a funding perspective, the surge in interest is becoming more apparent. In the first half of 2021, venture capital funding in the proptech sector hit US$9.7 billion in its most active first half on record, according to JLL.
Leveraging machine learning and AI
While many investors are just warming up to the idea of proptech, its potential has long been clear to us at OfficeBlocks, a JLL-Risk Integrated joint venture.
Applying leading-edge machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies through our platform not only empowers better decision-making for our clients with the data, but also helps them navigate the lack of it.
For years, some cities like Brisbane, Perth, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi have been viewed by investors as having inadequate and less-transparent real estate data and insights, unlike deeper and more liquid markets across the region.
These markets typically attract less institutional investment, in part due to the historical scarcity of data and information on their real estate assets.
To plug this gap, we recently expanded OfficeBlocks in these seven cities, widening our platform’s coverage to over 42,000 properties across 18 Asia Pacific markets including Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.
There remains a long runway for growth in harnessing the use of proptech to solve the dearth of data and insights.
While it may not be the only solution, it will at least enable investors to make data-driven decisions to ride out any uncertainty in this competitive year ahead.
Keen to find out more about OfficeBlocks? Click here to sign up or schedule a trial with us today.
