Although the German property sector was initially slow to embrace digitalisation, large housing associations, institutional investors and product developers are now keen users of these innovations developed by PropTech companies. The main reasons for using PropTech are cost savings and increased efficiency.
What does PropTech have to offer?
PropTech covers a vast range of products and services. This includes crowd-investing platforms for properties, smart-home technologies such as digital locking systems and smart meters as well as customised 3D renderings of planned buildings, estate-agent tools, platforms for holiday home-sharing or the temporary letting of high-end apartments, and even user-friendly apps for property management companies, document management and tenant management.
What are the benefits?
With such a wide array of products and services, small-scale private landlords who perhaps own only one or a handful of apartments may often find it difficult to see the specific benefits that certain PropTech apps might offer them. Some of the apps might strike these landlords as gimmicky or only offering added value when applied on a larger scale. One example of the latter includes smart locking systems from providers such as KIWI. These make it possible to grant controlled access to a building or apartment via an app. Access rights can be allocated to the app user – such as a trusted tradesperson or a short-term tenant – at the touch of a button by the apartment’s owner and then withdrawn again. This saves on the tedious business of arranging key hand-overs and on the potential cost of having to change the locks and cut new keys. A clear advantage for large property management companies – but how often does a private landlord face these kinds of issue? Exactly.
So what can private landlords also benefit from?
Things look a little different when you can use a handy app to take care of time-consuming administrative tasks such as generating utility bills in a faster and more straightforward way than with conventional tools such an Excel table and a pocket calculator. In addition to saving time, digital solutions – such as those offered by the start-up objego – are also considerably less error-prone and ensure greater legal conformity. What a blessing it would be for landlords if they could control, and gain a visual overview of, all their property-management and document-management tasks with just a single app.
Conclusion:
It is certainly worthwhile for private landlords to engage more closely with the innovations that PropTech companies are bringing to market. Even if not every product is relevant to this target group, it is in this very segment that digitalisation has yet to develop its full potential and show the extent to which it can make landlords’ lives easier.
Would you like to find out more about which digital tools can make letting and managing your properties easier for you, which you can use for efficient renovations, or which are helpful when selling your property? Then get in touch with us! We are happy to advise you.
For more information:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/PropTech
https://blackprintbooster.de/immobilien-intelligent-verwalten-mit-objego/
Note : In this text, the generic masculine is used for better readability. Feminine and other gender identities are explicitly included to the extent necessary for the statement.
Legal note: This article does not constitute tax or legal advice in individual cases. Please have the facts of your specific individual case clarified by a lawyer and/or tax advisor.
