According to CBRE’s recent research, The Proptech Index 2019, 70% of occupiers from Central and Eastern Europe intend to raise their level of real estate technology investment in the next few years, mostly in a more people-centric direction. A new generation of consumers and workers (mostly Millennials and Gen Z) are incentivizing employers and landlords to recognize that technology is crucial in their workplace.

Digitizing commercial property provides endless new opportunities for owners and managers of large property portfolios. No one knows this better than Dr. Robert Herman MRICS, who left Hungary three years ago to start a tech company in California. He talked to us about the importance of technology in the property business and his new role as a member of the RICS in the Americas Board.

The retail sector has been heavily affected by the changes brought on by technology. Solutions such as indoor localization provide limitless opportunities for retailers wanting to stay ahead of the competition. Oren Rosen, Co-Founder of Israeli startup Infuse Location Ltd talked to Property Forum about the changing shopping experience.

Spaceflow announced the completion of a €1.6 million funding round led by Credo Ventures with participation from Day One Capital and UP21. The round will help Spaceflow achieve its strategic growth goals in the USA and UK, and also expand its product development team to continue refining its platform and service offerings.

Cushman & Wakefield announced its strategic partnership with Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm focused on technology solutions for the global real estate industry.

Globalworth has worked with Signify to deliver the first implementation of a light-wave wireless communication solution in the CEE region. Trulifi is available in the Warsaw office building Spektrum Tower. Investments in new technologies improving the use of the office buildings managed by the company are one of the pillars of Globalworth's development strategy in Poland. 

PropTech Romania which is the first Romanian innovation platform designed for the real estate market, hosted the first European real estate hackathon in Bucharest on 12 and 13 April 2019.

Brickblock, a technical service provider based in Berlin, has tokenised a residential real estate vehicle carrying a property in Wiesbaden, Germany. It is the first transaction in the EU for which shares are represented on the blockchain. The sale of the €2 million property was exclusive to eligible investors.

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.

Spaceti, the Czech startup that provides an integrated suite of data analytics, smart sensors, and mobile user interfaces to optimise the use of office spaces and increase productivity and the wellbeing of people in buildings, was named the world’s top property technology (proptech) company at the MIPIM Startup Competition in Cannes.