Proptech company finds development land using AI

A UK-based proptech startup, Urban Intelligence, has been awarded a contract by Birmingham City Council to undertake a review of land across the city using groundbreaking digital methods.

The council is currently considering a new development plan for 2022-2042, and finding sufficient land for housing is likely to be increasingly challenging given their new housing targets. Urban Intelligence’s bespoke geospatial analysis software will significantly increase the speed and scope of the council’s review. It will enable 330,000 sites to be assessed, 284 times more than the 1,160 assessed by the council in 2017.

Urban Intelligence’s solution is to use machine learning to appraise every land parcel across the city, maximising the chances of uncovering more sites that could respond to the pressing need for homes.

Daniel Mohamed, founder and CEO of Urban Intelligence, is excited about the project’s potential. “As the largest local authority in Europe, the city will provide a fantastic opportunity to explore the use of geospatial methods for data-driven urban development at significant scale.”

The company’s technology has already had a huge impact in the London Borough of Hounslow by multiplying the number of sites typically assessed 191 times. The team’s work has uncovered 4200 suitable sites of which many are council-owned.