As technology rapidly changes the world, one area - real estate (RE) - has remained virtually untouched by innovation. But slowly, the situation is starting to change and innovators are paying more and more attention to this area. We invite you to find out what the most promising ideas in real estate technology, also known as PropTech, are being developed in Lithuania.
A house is like a Tesla
One of the winning innovators of the PropTech Innovation Camp in Vilnius is the start-up Strato AI, which promises to revolutionize the prefabricated house market. Prefabricated houses, or pre-fab houses, are houses where the main parts are made in a factory and the only thing left to do is to assemble them on-site. This type of construction is gaining significant popularity worldwide. It is estimated that the international market for pre-fab homes will reach USD 160 billion by 2026.
The prefabricated way of producing houses, which nowadays uses technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D printing, solves several problems for manufacturers. For example, it makes it easier to control costs, keep to the construction schedule, require less of the labor that is currently lacking, generate fewer CO2 emissions, and leaves less waste on-site.
However, for consumers, such houses have been a nuisance. Those choosing a prefabricated single family house are forced to choose from a limited number of house options with a lack of customization options. According to Strato AI, 71% of consumers want this option.
Strato AI solution to this problem is to allow consumers to assemble the house they want in the same way that car manufacturers allow them to assemble a car. According to Strato AI, ordering a house should be as easy as ordering a Tesla car.
Strato AI is developing software that will provide users with customized prefabricated house offers based on their needs and the location of the future house. In addition, Strato AI will instantly calculate an estimate how much energy the house will consume and will bring the customer to their dream house through virtual 3D.
The Strato AI platform will also connect manufacturers, who will be able to use Strato AI software to offer consumers the customized homes they want. Strato AI has already integrated a modular home system into its platform, but should soon also include panel and 3D printed homes.
Such a system allows users to create the personalized home they want easily and without leaving their computer screen.
Know how much your home will be worth in 10 years
Another promising developer, the Market Trend Valuation Center (MTVC), aims to help predict future trends in the property market. MTVC has experience in modeling various projections, including forecasts of housing values in different regions of Lithuania. These projections have been made using various socio-economic and financial indicators and applying machine learning algorithms (or artificial intelligence).
The next step for the MTVC is to offer a tool that would allow to identify and forecast the value and liquidity of any real estate asset, to compare it with market results, and to make recommendations for the future on how to deal with real estate, for example, when it is best to sell. Forecasts could be made ten years in advance.
According to the MTVC, such a tool would be of interest to property valuers, investors, developers and banks.
“Long-term forecasts of specific real estate types can lead to improved decisions for value and asset management. Continuous data integration and application of artificial intelligence could allow making a digital twin of the real estate market, which could lead to new digitized business models”, dr. Valentas Gružauskas, CEO, Market Trend Valuation Center.
The digital twin of a building
Buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of the world's CO2 emissions. As a result, building managers have a strong interest in innovations that help reduce CO2 and use energy more sustainably. Triplet Digital offers a possible solution.
It proposes to use a building's digital twin to create simulations based on the building's data to identify future CO2 emissions, suggest solutions to reduce them and predict future problems.
Moreover, Triplet Digital proposes to create a platform where various other developers can propose to make different simulations based on the building's open data. Similarly, on a smartphone, various developers offer their own applications that propose various solutions based on the phone data.
In this way, says Triplet Digital, building managers could manage buildings more efficiently, use energy more efficiently, see which factors have the biggest impact on CO2 generation and find other creative solutions.
"For many years 3D objects were only used in games but we can see the progress, so our goal is to introduce products based on 3D technologies that can recreate, simulate and extend a limited physical environment”, says Gvidas Glebas, Tripled Digital creator.
The PropTech Innovation Camp incubator was organized by real estate company Eastnine and financial technology and sustainable innovation centre ROCKIT, together with accelerator BalticSandbox, from 14-18 November. The most promising Lithuanian real estate technology ideas were evaluated by foreign and Lithuanian experts. The winners of the incubator will continue to participate in the PropTech innovation programme, during which they will have the opportunity to further develop their ideas with Eastnine and ROCKIT.
