This is How Coronavirus Pandemic is Transforming the Real Estate Industry

There is always a silver lining behind any dark cloud. The current Corona crisis is not an exception. Given, this pandemic will permanently change the way business is done. The beauty of this is that it is already changing some of our behaviors and culture for the better.

The Pandemic will certainly change what we value as well as our relationships with others. This pandemic will surely bring new innovations, new thinking and new ways of doing things.

How will the real estate be altered? I think technology uptake will permanently change how we do real estate.

Traditional Real Estate vs. New change (adapting the technology)

1. Self-drives to view Property: Taking people to site was a daily engagement. Now, it is all about self-drives for site visits. Customers moving forward will most often be seeking Google coordinates of the property and then proceed to take themselves to site.

2. Physical brochures and Business Cards will be edged out: It is now evident that e-brochures and e-business cards are effective, saves on cost and faster. This may become a new norm with the physical brochures and business cards going extinct. Effectively, there will be less printing, and by extension we will end up saving lots of trees since there will be no much printing on thousands of physical marketing brochures.

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3. Physical Visits to Site will reduce for those not too serious about buying: Today, an online 3D view of properties is allowing customers to have an almost real-time view of location and features. It now also allows customers to make decisions to move to the next level of commitment. For instance, Optiven’s Shamba Mkononi App ( https://shrts.net/a6ixO ) allows customers to view their preferred project via Google Earth tools; thus allowing them to see available plots, book site visits online, pick an available plot of their choice and pay for it online.

4. Working from offices will become archaic: We have seen that indeed it is possible for people to work and deliver from home. This has worked during the COVID-19 period. It actually works and indeed, it will surely extend moving forward, for services and work that does not require physical touch. By extension, there may be no need for way bigger office spaces since working from home has proven to be as effective.

5. Cash Payment will be an outdated mode of transaction: Online payment is the new way of paying for goods and services. The cashless economy will become an accepted standard. In turn, Governments will save massively for not printing physical money. As a real estate customer, you will not need to travel to a real estate office to deliver money or cheque eating up some more precious time, waiting for a physical receipt. An online transaction and receipting will do just fine.

6. The physical signing will not be fashionable in the near future: Electronic signatures will replace physical signing. The Kenyan government enacted into law electronic signatures and this will surely improve the process of property ownership. Land searches are already online, transfers are going online; things are literally going all digital.

7. Physical meetings for staff will reduce: The use of technology such as Zoom will enable virtual meetings to take place just as effectively. During this Corona crisis, this is what we are currently using. You can expect that the trend will continue, with many meetings being conducted via video conferencing as opposed to one-on-one meetings that sometimes end up being time-consuming.