PropTech Romania (proptech.ro) is Romania’s first platform to bring together real estate players, investors, startups and tech companies, fostering innovation, digital transformation and collaboration. The official launch of PropTech Romania happened during Startup Europe Summit 2019 in Cluj, as a side event, an occasion to also announce the first Real-Estate Hackathon on 12-13 April, in Bucharest. Property Forum is a media partner of the first Real Estate Hackathon in Romania.
Proptech is the acronym used to describe any technology for the real estate space. This can span software (property portals like Rightmove and Zoopla are considered proptech software), hardware (sensors), materials (special bricks are being developed to act as batteries for solar panels) or manufacturing (3D printing, offsite manufacturing).
On a global level, the digital transformation wave has radically changed the communications, the automotive and the financial & insurance industries, to name just the most remarkable. The construction and building sectors, the whole real estate are still waiting to be disrupted, though on some niches that already happened. Airbnb totally changed the hospitality industry and WeWork is about to do the same for office rent.
“The purpose of Proptech Romania is to connect the players between each other and with the international proptech structures, and to help drive value from the real estate ecosystem (developers, agencies, investors, startups, builders), facilitating meaningful interactions and challenge/problem based solutions. Proptech started to get noticed worldwide because it is no longer a niche phenomenon. Investment in proptech has soared recently: from $186 million globally in 2011, to $2,67 billion in 2016 and more than $10 billion last year. For example, four proptech companies reached the 1 billion USD valuation mark: Compass, a network of real estate brokers; Homelink, a Chinese real estate portal; SMS Assist, a multi-site property management tool; and Opendoor, an algorithm for buying and selling homes online”, says Smaranda Ignat, Executive Director of PropTech Romania.
PropTech Romania will organize on 12-13 April 2019 the first Real Estate Hackathon in Romania and in Europe, covering digital transformation in the property industry (commercial, industrial, residential, smart city). PropTech Romania will promote Romanian proptech startups (finalists of the national edition of the hackathon) in UK, bringing the startups to the Future Proptech event in London.
The themes of the Bucharest Hackathon are the following:
- Smart Real Estate: Property Management (Retail / Office): What makes a building smart, more efficient and sustainable?
- Architecture, Engineering & Construction: Building Information Modeling, preparing the digital twin of the building.
- Agency & Brokerage: Innovating the work of the middleman, anything from platforms to CRMs and beyond.
- Property Financing: New models for financing a real estate asset, digitalization of old business models
- Open Hack: Let your imagination go wild and bring on the hack any property related solution that you believe useful
The prizes of the Bucharest Hackathon are as follows: 1st place - €7,500; 2nd place - €5,000; 3rd place – €2,500. Other challenge prizes will be announced. The winning teams will be participating with PropTech Romania & the sponsors at the Future Proptech event in London. The startups will have international exposure as Romanian proptech startups and they will have the opportunity to discuss with dedicated investors. The winners will be automatically on the short list on of the international real estate hackathon that we will organize as a side event at MIPIM Proptech Paris in July.
The Real Estate Hackathon offers an enriching learning and interactive environment for innovative people to practice rigorous problem solving, work collaboratively in teams, and gain hands-on experience in interacting with real estate players. As a sponsor, you will support and inspire the next generation of innovators in the field, while building strong relationships with future leaders of the industry. The official partner of the Hackathon will have a generous benefits package, among them a one-year free membership in PropTech Romania.
The Real Estate Hackathon will be just the first of a series of events and actions carried on by Proptech Romania (proptech.ro). With the help of partners from UK Proptech, Global PropTech Online, MIPIM Europe, Swiss Proptech, Holland ConTech & Proptech and Proptech Russia, PropTech Romania aims to speed up the process of integration between technology and brick & mortar. Property Forum is a media partner of the first Real Estate Hackathon in Romania.
