Technology predicted to play vital role in future of commercial property

Proplend has predicted that technology will play an integral role in the future of commercial property.

The peer-to-peer lending platform, which offers commercial property-backed loans, said investors will be more interested in properties that make tenants feel safe when they return to the office, provide real time updates on the ‘environmental health of the building’ and reduce costs in a challenging economic environment. Proplend said technology can help deliver all of this.

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The platform said now there are more expectations for properties to be internally environmentally safe.

Users can monitor and control energy usage, temperature, noise, air and light quality and sensors can detect leaks or defects at very early stages allowing for quicker repairs before further damage can occur.

“Technology allows us now, in real time, to monitor operational data, how many people are in the building, where they are and what they are doing,” Proplend said in a blog on its website.

The platform said the nation has become too relaxed and reliant on global supply chains and these will be restructured with the help of technology.

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“We thought nothing of ordering goods online from China and having them delivered 24 or 48 hours later, but in March 2020 those supply chains ground to a shuddering halt,” Proplend said in the blog.

“Business will both source a higher share of key components or ingredients locally and then supported with data, maintain inventory nearer to the end consumers.”

Proplend said that modular and off site prefabricated building is a smarter, cheaper and more efficient method of construction.

The platform said the next logical step is construction by 3D printing, which has the potential to cut material costs by 50 per cent and labour costs by up to 80 per cent.

“This may seem futuristic but it’s a reality in China,” Proplend said in the blog.

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In a separate blog, the platform said that commercial property leases are undergoing change, which is needed more than ever because of the lockdown.

Tenants, especially in the retail and hospitality sectors, are struggling to pay rent quarterly in advance, before they have made any money trading.

Proplend said tenants are now trying to renegotiate their leases to either monthly in arrears or potentially to a new type of lease, a turnover lease which is more common in Europe, and need to be open about their financial situation with their landlord.

“If nothing else the past three months of lockdown have shown that lease change is not coming, it’s here!” the lender said in the blog.