Leading proptechs from Luxembourg and the greater region gathered for the RE-Smart conference at the Hotel Parc Alvisse on Thursday.
In addition to the 30+ exhibitor stands, organisers LuxProptech and Progetis had organised a packed schedule of talks spanning real estate trends, innovation strategies, new home ownership models, environmental technology and major developments in the grand duchy.
The afternoon panel talk, moderated by Charles-Louis Machuron, offered strong insights into how digitalisation is disrupting home ownership.
The panel examined the challenges of home acquisition and ownership with Helene Ackermann of PriceHubble pointing out that people don’t want to wait: “If you sold your house once, you know typically it takes time until the price is set, you have somebody doing it for you. You need the money now.”
In a country with eye-watering property prices, the good news is that digitalisation is slowly broadening access to property ownership. While not “revolutionary”, crowdfunding models like those offered by Beebonds are driving that transformation, through participatory finance. “We allow anyone with savings to benefit from this technology,” said panellist and BeeBonds co-founder Joël Duysan.
Real estate tokenisation tools like those offered by BlocHome are, meanwhile, leveraging blockchain technology to lower the barrier to entry for investors and make it easier and faster to turn real estate into a liquid asset.
But there remain barriers, among them the slowness of banks and traditional institutions to adopt new technologies.
Blochome’s Jean-Paul Scheuren pointed out that the stakes are high and without intervention from digital tools that speed up and ease access by providing information and novel financing models, the “consequences will be huge.”
He said: “It is becoming increasingly difficult to buy property for more and more people…We see there will be more investors and fewer occupier owners. That’s why we must find solutions to increase access and give people the means.”
All panellists agreed that proptech had already brought benefits to buying experience.
But there is still more to be done. Looking to the future, Ackermann said: “We have to get more into the services orientation. We can stay in touch with the buyers and give them more value. Because it’s important to put the customer at the centre.”
Read more about the event here.
