For the first time ever, a prestigious summit gathers for Prop Tech in China to discuss “the future of real estate”

JLL, the global leader in real estate and investment management services, successfully sponsored the first “Future of Real Estate: 2019 China Prop Tech Forum and Exhibition” in Beijing and Shanghai on May 8th and May 9th. The two-day forum and exhibition attracted over 2,000 professionals from the real estate and technology industries. Through keynote speech and team discussion, participants actively talked about the role of technology in real estate construction, leasing, management, transaction and registration. They shared their own predictions and outlook on the future development of Prop Tech.

Anthony Couse, Chief Executive Officer of JLL Asia Pacific, stated during the event’s opening speech: “The real estate industry has been regarded as a traditional industry for a long time. However, the real estate segments of coworking, co-living, Prop Tech, etc. are all burgeoning, innovative trends that are currently revolutionizing the real estate industry. A brand-new Prop Tech ecosystem is reshaping the real estate industry in China. Our vision is to work together with governments, investors, developers, corporate clients, designers, architects to empower the development of China’s real estate industry. With this vision, JLL held this summit to create an engaging platform for all market players, where they can communicate, exchange and cooperate with one another. This may allow for true integration of technology into the real estate ecosystem, improving client experience and industry efficiency.”

Endless Innovation: Promising Outlook of Prop Tech

Albert Ovidi, Chief Operating Officer of JLL Asia Pacific, spoke on the topic of the future of real estate. In the beginning of his speech, he shared a short video that visually shows a future smart building, which facilitates many aspects of life for the entire city’s residents.

Albert Ovidi, Chief Operating Officer of JLL Asia Pacific, said, “Everything in the video is slowly but surely becoming reality. Technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of things, virtual reality, augmented reality are all optimizing the interactive experience between clients and the real estate ecosystem.”

Pang Ce, General Manager of GSMA China Strategic Cooperation, and Lu Jinjun, General Manager of China Telecommunications Corporation, both spoke on the topic of the effect of 5G wireless network on real estate. 2019 is the first year of the oncoming 5G, which will eventually optimize people’s life and social development pattern in an-around way for effective interconnection. Large companies in the industry chain are preparing for 5G to be globally deployed for commercial purposes starting 2020. The convergence of 5G, Internet of things, and artificial intelligence will drive the era moving from all things inter-connected to all things smart. Big data regional insight, augmented reality security, drone inspection, and application of robots all can help empower smart real estate from single buildings to neighborhoods, and then to entire city.

Nicolas du Cray, Partner of Cathay Innovation, states regarding the topic of capital and technology that the role of venture capital investment is to connect the innovative Prop Tech to the traditional real estate industry, thus creating a healthy real estate investment ecosystem. Lu Yang, Founder and Managing Partner of Urban Capital, believes that the future of the Prop Tech market is bright. The fast development of technology infrastructure, featuring artificial intelligence as its brain, 5G as its backbone and Internet of things as its touch points, will bring about significant changes to the real estate operations and management. He believes that there are three major trends in the future of real estate: First, the service volume within the real estate space will drive real estate value. Second, any real estate space must have an integrated design. Third, real estate space must cater to custom services for different users.

Constructive Explosion: Prop Tech Reshapes Idyllic Life of Mankind

During the summits in Beijing and Shanghai, JLL arranged five sessions of group discussion, focusing on the development, design, management, retail and capital investment.

Development

The first step of real estate development is to plan. In the group discussion about “Reshaping Planning: Real Estate Development’s Cutting Edge Technology,” guests in both Beijing and Shanghai expressed their views on how new technology will transform development planning for both smart buildings and cidades inteligentes. They explored different technological applications on the macro, meso and micro levels of cidades inteligentes planning. To them, cidades inteligentes naturally result from digitalization era of human city urbanization.

The planning of cidades inteligentes involves dynamic programming since complex city systems with extensive, varied streaming data continually self-propagate and expand. Spatial planning, societal governance, civilization shift, as well as physical, ethical and cultural contexts all continually influence each other and have to be taken into account. Smart planning calls for 3D mapping and rendering, Internet of things, VR, AR, and other new technologies to be utilized in deep synergy in order to process and analyze ever-changing, colossal amounts of real-time data.

Design

Besides planning for cidades inteligentes, smart building design and construction are also necessary for smart building implementation. In the group discussion of “Building Design and Construction: The Upfront Cost of Smart Buildings,” guests from both cities argued that technology is the prime driving force behind real estate design and construction, and as such, it should serve as the core of the entire process and not as a mere accessory. With advances in technology, the workplace paradigm has seen a massive shift. Technology should focus on servicing and supporting both real estate space and the user experience. Technology can help us better understand the optimization of the space as well as the model of human behavior. With both, we can create th space that can fit humanity’s ever changing needs.

Through the latest tech breakthroughs like smart robots, AI voice assistants, VR and other innovations, we can better implement work space interconnection, mobile connectivity, flexibility, and sustainability in the realms of design and construction. We can create a highly linked, sustainable working environment that satisfies the requirement of smart buildings for flexible and diversified working space. When it comes to applications of artificial intelligence in the design, summit guests believe that artificial intelligence can successfully complete design logic and execution, freeing designers out of repetitive basic work and letting them focuse on the work of higher value. The creative process in design is where humanity can generate the most value. It only makes sense that the best design comes from optimizing both the creative and analytical aspects.

Management

With the launch of new smart buildings, it is natural that the property management system is enhanced as well. In the group discussion of “Asset Redevelopment: Prop Tech’s Role in Managing Operations,” guests shared how Internet of things, artificial intelligence and other technologies are being applied to smart property management. With the support of new technologies, robots now can park cars, patrol and clean premises, and even repair electrical rooms as part of the smart property management system, a necessary component of smart buildings. Depending on their needs, users can choose between facilities leasing, skills training, insurance continuation and free after-sale services.

New technologies have even prompted new business models. Clients no longer need to invest large amounts of money to buy the latest robot. They only need to pay a few regular service fee in order to access the full range of robot services. From buying machines to purchasing services, this fits with the innovative sharing business model. It also greatly increases the utilization of Prop Tech facilities, accelerating the advancement and integration of new technologies. Guests took a further step and even predicted that niche markets will blossom as the real estate and technology industries continue to integrate and break existing barriers. These niche markets will satisfy further custom client needs that arise, which will create better benefits and experience for the property and asset management.

Retail

Artificial intelligence and big data were focal points of the group discussion “Technology Applications in Retail: Consumer Data Analysis vs. Client Experience.” Summit guests agree that client data services analysis can effectively improve both client satisfaction and services rendered in the real estate industry. By combining client data with geographic location data, the real estate industry can attain more useful knowledge in breadth and depth. Artificial intelligence can effectively empower the real estate. Humanless stores, automatic vending machines, and large supermarket applications have all been actualized. Other new technologies include machine visuals, product recognition, ID verification, etc. Together, they have greatly enhanced the client experience in the retail world.

The summit guests said that technology promotes integration and useful application between data and service, which increases efficiency. The process of increasing efficiency also affords us a great opportunity to learn and improve as well. Technology both improves efficiency and pioneers innovative operating methods. Client experience is the most important, whether online or offline. By aligning client needs better with operations, we can enhance our ability to satisfy our clients. This is the crux of operations.

Capital Investment

The climax of the group discussions occurred during the last one titled “The Future of Real Estate: Capital, Technology and User Experience.” The summit guests shared their views during the heated discourse. At the Beijing summit event, the hot topic of recent “996” issue was discussed in detail. Some guests believe that we shouldn’t make sweeping generalizations regarding the 996 working protocol. Whether employees can accept the protocol is based on these people’s own career ambitions. Other guests state that they are willing to improve working conditions with smart office technologies, which may improve the morale of people in the office. What is certain is that smart office applications have a tantalizing outlook.

At the Shanghai event, some guests even made this bold prediction that as technology becomes more broadly applied in the real estate industry, real estate companies will become big data companies ten years from now. People’s experience regarding living condition and quality of life will improve dramatically with increased technological integration. Future homes of humanity should bring more safety and warmth. That is how technology can improve our lives. The question of which specific realm has the greatest opportunity for Prop Tech in China came up during the summit. Some guests think that in the next five years, companies focusing on operations will produce the biggest influence. These companies can adjust their orientation, strategies and business models quickly, allowing them to adapt to the market swiftly. In the next ten years, big data or artificial intelligence holds the most promise. The trend of the future crosses existing boundaries. The key is that technology implementation can improve both efficiency and end user experience in real estate and its related markets like retail.

At the summit event, JLL also planned the first digital sand table experience in China, as well as a 4D theater experience. JLL also displayed four of its flagship products: MapIT, InSite, Real Estate Partner and Smart Contact Center. Over 40 Prop Tech companies also displayed their latest technologies in the real estate industry during the summit.

The summit included a 2-day forum discussion, 6 keynote speeches in 10 group discussions, over 40 exhibitors, and over 60 experts within the industry who shared their viewpoints. In addition, there were live broadcast of videos and illustrations, more than 20,000 offline participants and over 2,000 guests, making this Prop Tech summit truly a prestigious gathering. JLL sponsored a gathering that was the first of its kind. Through organizing this real estate summit in China Prop Tech, JLL demonstrates its unwavering confidence in markets in China.

Anthony Couse, Chief Executive Officer of JLL Asia Pacific, said, “Hopefully this summit can continue in the next few years and attract more partners of like minds. Let us continue to spearhead the change!”