Property tech ‘winter’ is over, except in climate

A version of this article was first published in the CNBC Property Play bulletin with Diana Olick. Property games include new and developing opportunities for real estate investors from individuals to capitalists, private capital funds, family offices, corporate investors and major public companies. Be a member To get future prints, directly to your box.

As in most of the real estate industry, real estate technology, which is defined as the use of technology and software to make real estate and property management more efficient, has taken a major blow in recent years.

Higher interest rates, withdrawal of a capital market, and a push of almost all venture capital about artificial intelligence affected property technology. Of course, although some AI in property technology, it was not really enough to attract attention to a sector that was extremely slow to modernize historically.

“I probably say we’ve been living for three most challenging years I’ve ever had so far.” He said. “You have seen many companies and new business and initiative funds died.

The fifth Wall is a fund of overwash capital that manages over $ 3 billion, the largest investment company focused on technology for the built environment.

Wallace said last year’s public offering for property technology, which referred to in winter. ServantA cloud -based field service management software for HVAC, plumbing, electricity and landscaping. The company collected approximately 625 million dollars in its first public offering, and stocks increased by 42% in Nasdaq outputs.

Wallace also drew attention to new unicorn horses such as Juniper Square and Bilt, which is a good thing for the future of property technology investment. Bild, a platform that offers loyalty awards for housing, collected $ 250 million from United Wholesale Mortgage, including a strategic investment in a funding round led by General Catalyst and GID in July.

“The amount of destruction of the business value that occurred for the proper Tech was not seen from 2022 to 2024, but the amount of corporate value creation in the last 15 months was unlikely.” He said.

However, this is not the case in climate -related real estate technology. This field is increasingly challenged in the US due to political winds that have been distant from sustainability and climate flexibility in order not to mention climate science in general. As a result, all climate technology ecosystem in the real estate suffers.

Again, the real estate has always been slow to modernize and it was especially slow to be dajarbonize. However, he received great support from President Joe Biden’s administration and billions of dollars of public financing, most of them were generally out of carbon. Then Wallace said it was under the world’s feet.

“Many climate funds are struggling to raise. Many real estate owners sustainability, indecisiveness and ESG [environmental, social and governance]And there is a tangible change of propeller technology about climate, there is a negative change of emotion, “Wallace.” And that means we still support our companies. Actually, we still see very good progress, but the emotion is negative. “

Despite the change, he said that he was optimistic about the sector for a strong reason: the national policy is not anti -climate, but local governments. Cities are exhausted and carbon taxes are a very attractive way to increase capital. New York City is the best example. Not only does it move much more in politics, but also constantly more environmentally progressive.

One of the largest investors in this area, the fifth wall is receiving a long -term game, while the negative “halo” around the climate continues when investing, because the values ​​attractive.

Wallace, “In my opinion, the real estate industry is still responsible for 40% of carbon emissions. This industry, which eliminates the responsibility for years, will be very costly throughout the year. Money and capital will flow into this area … Because we are still one of the reasons we use capital,” he said.