IT in Real Estate

Real estate technology market in Russia. PropTech

Main article: Real estate technologies (Russian market), PropTech, Property Technologies

2024: Russian government creates unified digital platform for state property management

In early October 2024, it became known that the Government of the Russian Federation approved the creation of a Unified Digital Platform (EDS) in the field of managing real estate and movable property of public owners. The system is expected to take three years to build. Read more here.

2023

The volume of the Russian market for online rental services for the year increased to 111 billion rubles

At the end of 2023, the costs in the Russian market of online rental services reached 111 billion rubles. One of the drivers of the industry under consideration is the formed geopolitical situation. This is stated in a study by the Center for Strategic Research, the results of which were published on December 2, 2024.

It is noted that until 2022, two foreign platforms dominated the Russian market for online rental services - Airbnb and Booking.com. In particular, the share of Booking.com reached 55-60%, while Airbnb accounted for 10-15%. Thus, together these sites controlled about 70%. However, after the start of a special military operation and the imposition of sanctions, Airbnb and Booking.com ceased operations on the Russian market, and therefore the share of foreign platforms began to decline sharply. By the end of 2023, almost 100% of the market for online rental services in Russia is occupied by domestic services.

At the same time, the redistribution of the industry between local players began. About half of the sector is controlled by Avito, and about a quarter is controlled by the Daily platform. Among other participants, MTS Travel, Ostrovok, Cian.ru and Yandex Travel are mentioned. It is said that competition between online accommodation booking platforms is intensifying, which is expressed in the emergence of new companies operating in the relevant area. Additional confirmation of increased competition is observed in the form of rebuilding business models: from the summer of 2022, Avito began the transition from a classification model to a transactional model, and then the Cian.ru service began a similar transformation.

The study showed that the main reasons for using platform services for finding and booking accommodation are: a wide range of accommodation facilities in Russia (47%); an understandable and convenient website interface (35%), as well as an understandable and convenient mobile application interface (31%). Significant factors when choosing a particular service are named: attractiveness of prices, shares and discounts (43%); availability of feedback from real customers (43%); presence of photos and videos from guests (40%). However, respondents consider the absence of a deposit system to be the least significant factors (5%); availability of additional services, for example, railway, air tickets and excursions (4%); possibility of making installments (3%).

For women, more significant factors in comparison with men are the presence of reviews, as well as photos and videos from real customers on the service for finding and booking housing (44-47% among women versus 32-35% among men). For representatives of a strong half of humanity, price characteristics are more important - 50% of men consider the factor of attractiveness of prices, availability of shares and discounts to be significant against 39% among women. The report also said that with age, the importance of attractiveness of prices, availability of shares and discounts grows: from 36% among customers 18-34 years old to 51% among customers 50 years and older. A wide selection of accommodation facilities is also of great importance - 21% and 30%, respectively. At the same time, with age, the importance of a wide selection of filters for finding housing decreases - from 24% among customers 18-34 years old to 11% among customers 50 years and older, as well as the importance of having a rating system for landlords - from 16% to 6%, respectively.

For people aged 35-49, the possibility of a "safe deal" is more important than customers in general - 32% versus 27% on average. With rising household income levels, the importance of factors such as the possibility of direct communication with the landlord decreases (from 37% among households with an income of up to 60 thousand rubles per month to 25% among households with an income of 150 thousand rubles per month or more), the possibility of conducting a "safe transaction" (from 32% to 22%, respectively) and favorable cancellation conditions (from 26-27% among households with an income level of up to 150 thousand rubles per month to 14% among households with an income higher).^[1]

Popular communication services for the real estate market and scenarios for their use

On December 18, 2023 Russian provider , communication services "" announced Telfin that it had analyzed the most popular communication services for companies in the field, and real estate also identified the most common scenarios for their use.

As reported, the study made it possible to form a portrait of a user of virtual telecom solutions from among real estate agencies and development companies. The study was conducted on the basis of data from user accounts from among Telfin clients.

𝓲

Telfin

One of the fundamental and most popular communication services for the real estate sector was the connection of virtual city and mobile numbers of the Russian Federation. According to the results of the study, several key scenarios for the use of numbers were identified:

• Mobile numbers are most often connected as a means of direct contact with the agent. The profile and size of agencies for choosing this service is very wide. These are new buildings, secondary housing, and elite housing.
• Real estate agencies, specializing only in the secondary market, practically do not use city numbers as common numbers per company. Such enterprises use mainly mobile numbers. At the same time, agencies specializing in elite real estate and new buildings almost always have a beautiful common number in their contacts.
• Large agencies connect several types of numbers at once: both city and mobile. The reason for this is the wide specialization and scale. Companies of this segment sell both new buildings and secondary housing, as well as offer long-term and daily rentals of various types of real estate.
• Employee mobility in real estate agencies is enhanced by the use of corporate SIM cards or FMCs. Such services are convenient for agents to work "in the fields" and on objects. The service, as of December 2023, mobile communications with FMC is one of the ten most popular communication services for real estate.
• City numbers are most often used as common numbers by developers and large real estate agencies. Also, status beautiful rooms are often connected by large construction companies to start selling new buildings. City numbers for potential buyers are often associated with big business. However, by such a number, customers more often expect to hear an interactive voice menu.

𝓲

Telfin

Analysis of the distribution of numbers by regions of Russia revealed a trend towards remote sales and purchases of real estate without strict reference to a certain region. Quite often, agencies take for business the number of the city where the investment attractive property is located for sale, while physically agencies and sales managers can even be in another region. The same situation occurs among customers who are considering the acquisition of objects while in another region.

After the pandemic, business has become easier to treat remote real estate sales. That is, physically the company can be located in St. Petersburg, but at the same time have regional numbers and sell real estate in Moscow, Sochi, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg and other large regional centers, where there is a constant increase in the cost of square meters. This allows the company to expand the geography of coverage and reach the federal level.

The minimum number of communication services of the real estate agency is usually chosen to work in local markets. Approximately 60% of real estate companies purchase 1-2 rooms. These are mainly telephone numbers of Moscow and St. Petersburg, which are often used to reach the federal level and link to cities with the most active real estate market. When using a small number of numbers, companies connect additional extension lines to significantly expand the canality of the corporate telephone network.

About 13% of real estate agencies purchase up to 10 rooms for private use by realtors on objects. Another 14% use from 11 to 50 numbers in work. These two indicators directly depend on the number of employees in the company and the number of offices throughout the Russian Federation.

10% of companies completely refuse to buy virtual telephone numbers, as they continue to use existing mobile and city numbers for communication, which can be easily connected to virtual PBXs using SIP settings.

Separately, it is worth highlighting a small, but important sight segment from the point of view of the number of purchased virtual telephone numbers. About 3% of real estate agencies connect over 100 rooms. Among the clients of "Telfin" there are also organizations that use more than 500 rooms at the same time. As a rule, they use them for substitution on the site during dynamic collecting, and they are also purchased for different advertizing sites or real estate.

The study "Telfin" made it possible to determine the entry threshold for the connection of telephony by real estate agencies and formulate a certain minimum package of the most demanded services. As statistics show, virtual numbers cloudy AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE EXCHANGE and are the necessary minimum for modern real estate agencies. Individual realtors and agencies at the initial stage of their journey choose complex solutions with different call processing schemes to automate business processes and optimize the processing of customer requests. Here, the fight goes for each client, so agents must remain in touch around the clock, while on vacation, business trip or at the facility.

For private realtors and small agencies with a staff of less than four specialists, solutions that combine PBX, virtual number and integration with CRM are not attractive due to the higher price compared to mobile communications - they are most often limited to individual specialists. Agents themselves look for customers, process transactions, conclude contracts and receive a percentage - under such a scenario, there is still no task of controlling dialogues and systematizing information.

Agencies think about controlling the quality of employees' work when marketing activity appears and the company spends money on attracting incoming requests. In this case, the business wants to get the maximum return from the funds invested in the promotion. Therefore, at this moment, a minimum set of services is usually connected: this is a virtual PBX for the required number of additional employees, city and/or mobile numbers, integration with CRM and an extended storage for call records.

To see how agents process applications, also additionally agencies use conversation recording, storage, connect call quality assessment and voice analytics. In the extended scenario, it is already possible to receive information about keywords, see all information about the client in the call card. For example, thanks to connected voice analytics services, agencies can track transactions bypassing the company and transferring customers to an employee's personal number, and companies can also control any unwanted words or wording. Such a set of services makes the work of agents more transparent and their attitude more responsible.

Virtual numbers allow us to optimize communication costs - we have a fixed price per room without taking into account the amount of incoming traffic. It is possible to flexibly configure communications with customers, change call processing rules online, use different numbers to receive calls from different regions and from different advertising platforms. This all optimizes the quality of service and helps control the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. In pilot mode, voice call analytics was connected to assess the quality of customer service, as well as to analyze the level of preparedness and efficiency of our operators. Unambiguous analysis of these data will allow you to quickly identify errors in the operation of operators, as well as determine the mood and readiness of the client for further work. commented Sergey Ochakovsky, Director of the IT Department of Ajax

The service of sending and receiving SMS also got into the top 10 communication services. At first glance, such a text format of communications may well replace messengers. But as of December 2023, there are no guarantees that the client has the necessary messenger, so so far working with Telegram or WhatsApp is not as effective as classic SMS messages. The real estate market is characterized by the use of short messages to a mobile phone in the format of a business card at the end of a conversation. The second option for using SMS is newsletters. When the agency finds a suitable option for the client in the real estate system, it sends a short information SMS to the buyer. SMS for December 2023 is the main means of quickly delivering text information to the addressee.

As of December 2023, the top ten popular services included a service for receiving and making calls through Telegram (Telegram softphone). The service is most convenient in foreign trips and in countries where SIP telephony is prohibited. For example, such regions include the United Arab Emirates, popular with real estate agencies, where IP telephony is prohibited at the legislative level, but it is possible to use instant messengers.

When choosing a real estate object, the emotional component is very strong. The agent needs to understand the pain and expectations of the customer. It is very important to establish contact with the client the first time. This can be difficult to do when organizing remote sales. Modern telecom services help expand the geography of clients and use a variety of communication tools in conjunction with each other in the work of agents: website, telephony, instant messengers, video conferencing, etc. With their help, you can send a photo of the object, show the view from the window of the house in real time, get acquainted with the management company, and remotely coordinate all issues with the lawyer. Such solutions help to interest remote customers, form a full-fledged perception of the object and motivate them to make an online transaction as soon as possible. commented on Stanislav Dmitriyev, JoyWork supervisor

On Public services, you can now register ownership of real estate

At the end of August 2023, it became possible to register ownership of real estate on the State Public services portal. This was told in the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation. Read more here.

Real estate data in Russia will protect against cyber attacks

At the end of June 2023, the State Duma adopted in the third (final) reading amendments to the federal law "On the Security of Critical Information Infrastructure of the Russian Federation" in terms of clarifying the subjects of critical information infrastructure. Read more here.

2022: Moscow Government and Federal Property Management Agency conclude first electronic real estate deal

The government Moscow Rosimushchestvo and made the first electronic real estate transaction. This is stated in a message published on August 9, 2022 on the official website of the capital's mayor.

According to this statement, the Moscow government and the territorial administration of the Federal Property Management Agency issued the first electronic act of acceptance and transfer of a real estate object from federal property to the capital. As a result, the city received a land plot in TINAO (combining the names of two new districts - Troitsky and Novomoskovsky administrative districts), which will be used to develop the road network of these districts.

It is noted that the capital's Department of Urban Property and the Territorial Administration of the Federal Property Management Agency prepared and signed in electronic form all the documents necessary for the registration of the transfer of the object. It is planned that by 2023 real estate transactions between departments will be carried out only in electronic form.

The Department of Urban Property and the territorial administration of the Federal Property Management Agency in the city of Moscow cooperate on an ongoing basis, which as a result leads to positive changes in the daily life of residents of the capital. Together we manage to achieve decent indicators. Electronic interaction between our structures becomes a good example, "said Anton Kolegov, head of the territorial administration of the Federal Property Management Agency in Moscow.

As Vladimir Efimov, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Economic Policy and Property and Land Relations, added, digital interaction between the authorities makes it possible to speed up the execution of transactions and simplify the state registration of real estate rights.^[2]

2019

Industry Transformation Drivers

Legislation

• Program for the development of the digital economy in the Russian Federation until 2035
• Program to increase labor productivity in the Russian Federation 2018-2024
• Since 01.07.19, amendments have been made to Federal Law 151 regarding the mandatory use of BIM information models for capital construction projects
• Dep.stroi Moscow initiated a project to translate expertise and as-built documentation into electronic document management.
• 2 main 06.02.2020 have been canceled. BIM standard GOST R (58439 1 and 2 based on ISO 19650-1.2) in connection with contradictions of FZ 151: the term "information container" contains a threat to "national security of the Russian Federation"

Technologies

• 3D printing of low-rise buildings
• Building robots
• Skyscrapers in China: 53 floors in 3 weeks
• Quality Control with Cameras and Quality Recognition Technology
• Platform solutions for combining the Customer, Technical Customer, General Contractor and Contractors
• Smart cities

The most popular digital solutions in the field of real estate in Moscow. Survey results

On October 29, 2019, the Moscow Innovation Agency presented the results of a survey telling about the situation with the digitalization of real estate in Moscow.

Most of his respondents, according to Alexei Parabuchev, Director General of the Moscow Innovation Agency, are confident that there are no barriers and difficulties in this area.

Those who see them call them the low modern level of digital technology adoption, conservatism, industry inertia, a large number of intermediaries, bureaucracy, monopoly advantages of large companies, lack of funding, "said Alexey Parabuchev.

According to the survey, such digital solutions as digital real estate agencies, online sales, electronic mortgages, a local communications platform, real estate management and operation systems, marketing and geoanalytical tools, marketplaces, rental systems and real estate sales are most in demand in real estate in Moscow.

In general Russia , in terms of speed and trends, the digitalization of real estate is comparable to countries. Europe

Russia lags behind them very slightly in this area. Because both in Russia and in Europe in the field of real estate there are still large companies that have not switched to digital technologies. True, this may be due to the underdevelopment of the technologies that are available to them. In addition, both in Russia and in Europe, in fact, there are very few startups related to digital technologies that are used by real estate. There are even fewer mature solutions. In Russia, for example, there are only seven of them, - said Kirill Malyshev, co-founder of PropTech Russia and InState Property Facility Management.

He also added that, as in Russia, the real estate market in Europe is very conservative in terms of digitalization.

And convincing in the introduction of digital technologies both in Russia and in Europe can mainly receive financial benefits from them, "said Kirill Malyshev.

As problems restraining the development of digitalization of real estate in Russia, the expert called the lack of data on the market, difficult access to financial means, a specific culture of financing.

Dmitry Kotrovsky, Chairman of the OPORA Russia Construction Committee, in turn, noted that in an effort to develop digital technologies in real estate, it is necessary to build not on their perception of business, but on how focused it is on the implementation of projects for residents of a particular territory. Including using digital technologies.

Alexander Garbuzov, head of strategic planning at Cian.ru, drew attention to the fact that with all the variety of digital services related to real estate, the consumer sometimes simply does not know about them.

Exactly the same story with business. Many of his problems in the field of digitalization occurred due to the fact that at one time he did not have enough information. But currently, fortunately, the situation is changing for the better. At the same time, I note that in general, Russia already has a lot of digital technologies and individual solutions for the real estate sector. In addition, there is an understanding of how they should develop so that the real estate sector goes in the right direction, - said Alexander Garbuzov.

The problems of digitalization of real estate, according to him, are associated with the fact that this industry, being itself rather slow and traditional, has developed for a long time without investment in innovation.

However, the real estate sector is gradually changing for the better, - said Alexander Garbuzov.

See also

• Digital Technologies in Construction
• BIM technologies (Russian market)

• Real estate (Russian market)

Notes