Proptech trends: Archistar founder Dr Ben Coorey on what to expect in 2023

The global property and real estate industry is going through an interesting period. The pandemic has changed the face of working life, geopolitical conflicts have created logistical issues affecting supply and demand, and most recently, we’ve seen a constriction in economies across the world.

Despite these challenges, I believe we will see a new level of growth in property and architectural technology in 2023, specifically in the space of data, AI and generative design.

Google Maps for the property industry

In the last five or so years, we’ve seen dozens of startups take on the challenge of aggregating data sets and visualising them onto maps. We think about this similar to an advanced Google Maps for the property industry. The main focus has been on bringing together planning and property data onto single platforms to reduce the effort of manually browsing different websites to find an answer. The future will see this data aggregation turn into real-time AI insights.

Our platform has already captured thousands of data sets, but we believe AI will revolutionise the way businesses approach this market problem. We have already started developing technology that can predict promising property development opportunities through the crunching of big data, which is backed up by ‘precedents’, where we can show you completed development projects on land that is similar to yours. We are continuing to explore this area as we believe there will be a demand for real-time insights powered by the most advanced AI in the coming years.

There will be more integrations of planning data, property data and market information onto single platforms.

Generative design creates 3D building designs and home floor plans in real time

Generative design is a relatively new technology that has been introduced over the last couple of years and we expect to see it become ubiquitous in the next 24 months. A few companies in this space have made great strides, tackling different use cases with their technology. It is now possible to generate 3D building designs, modular buildings, and home floor plans in real time.

This marks a significant improvement in how we think about designing buildings, we are now collaborating with computers to describe what we want, and allow the computer to present us options. Like many others, Archistar is very committed to educating the industry but we are also focused on increasing accessibility to the everyday person with an interest in property through simple and easy-to-use interfaces. We believe that you shouldn’t have to be an expert with a university degree to know what you can do with the property you own or are looking to purchase.

Fast-tracking development with automatic compliance assessment

One area which we are scratching the surface on is work on the compliance and approval process for developments. Despite the increase in high-density housing across the world, there is still a severe undersupply of dwellings where construction is not meeting population growth. As such, an area that governments are increasingly exploring is the possibility of assessing building proposals with technology.

Through a proprietary blend of property technology and generative analytics, Archistar has run a number of successful pilots across the world to prove that the digital processing of applications is closer than ever before. 

Fast-tracking your development application with automatic compliance assessment is becoming a reality with pilots being trialled globally.

It is yet to be seen how macroeconomic factors will pan out over the next 12 months but a few things seem certain. Firstly, innovation will become increasingly focused on immediate use cases with a viable commercial model. Secondly, this technology is here to stay. The industry is starting to see many practical examples of technology that solve problems that have been present for decades.

This is the basis of any invention revolutionising an industry and we are committed to the challenge.

Dr Benjamin Coorey is a leading expert in parametric modelling, and the CEO and founder of Archistar.