Can proptech change the industry or is it all just an expensive experiment?

The first wave of the digital revolution hit in the early noughties – soon after that Rightmove and later, Zoopla, were born. But 15 years on, the next giant leap has arrived which, if its proponents are to be believed, will have an equally profound effect. You may have noticed it. Everyone is now talking about ‘proptech’; the community of small to medium-size new companies that are launching online services into the property market both for agents and consumers. But rather than monolithic giants like Zoopla, proptech firms are a swarm of smaller businesses changing the way property transacts, bit by bit, with no less potential impact. In the past 12 months we have witnessed a significant proliferation in the number of start-ups entering the market. Some of the digital world’s best minds are fixing their brains on making the property game more seamless, not only for purchasers and vendors but also for agents, investors and developers in the sales market. “The property market is an industry steeped in history and, to a certain extent, set in its ways but, perhaps later than other sectors such as retail or transport, technology is starting to have a real bearing on the…