Last year, I published a blog comparing the UAE’s proptech sector with other international hubs. In that article, I cited projections that the global value of this market was on course to reach $86.5 billion by 2032. At the time, I found this figure impressive, to say the least, but it turns out it may have been a rather conservative estimate.

According to a report published by Expert Market Research, the sector’s value hit $26.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.5% during the period 2024-32, reaching an estimated $104.81 billion within the next eight years.

As Founder and CEO of PRYPCO, I have witnessed this sector’s rapid expansion first-hand. Whichever way you cut it, proptech has firmly established itself as the preferred medium for significant numbers of buyers, sellers and investors, and further gains seem inevitable over the coming decade.

The question is, aside from growth, what lies on the horizon for this dynamic sector?

A comprehensive suite of services

Many people view proptech platforms as tools that facilitate the seamless buying and selling of real estate, and – in essence – that is their primary purpose. However, the industry is also witnessing significant levels of innovation in other areas as providers strive to encourage adoption and attract users from competitors.

To this end, one of the main focuses within our sector at present is the realisation of efficiencies and the maximisation of profits for portfolio owners. Automated solutions for rent payments, maintenance and other related costs are gradually becoming the norm – hardly surprising given that the property management segment alone is expected to pass $37 billion before the end of this decade.

I see this as part of a broader trend whereby proptech platforms will continue to extend their functionality, acting as one-stop service hubs for users in addition to online marketplaces.

Fractional ownership opportunities

One of my biggest motivations for launching PRYPCO back in 2022 was my firm belief that proptech has the potential to democratise the real estate market, making property ownership accessible to millions, if not billions, of people around the world. Fractional ownership is already playing a major role in bringing this vision to life.

This approach involves splitting real estate assets into equal parts, or ‘blocks’. As its name suggests, each block represents a fraction of the overall property, making ownership accessible to people who may otherwise have lacked the capital to invest.

PRYPCO Blocks, for example, is a fractional ownership platform regulated by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Through this innovative product, our team is enabling users to invest in UAE property blocks from as little as AED 500, offering expected annual returns on investment (ROI) of approximately 8%.

The primary advantage of this model is that it offers lower barriers to entry, meaning more people with a wider range of budgets can get involved. Over the coming years, I expect fractional ownership to represent an increasingly important focus within the global proptech sector.

Automated real estate valuations

Another trend that I expect to become increasingly prevalent is that of automated real estate valuations, which are typically generated by models that compare the values of multiple real estate assets at a given point in time.

While automated valuation models (AVMs) can trace their roots back to the 1990s, their mass adoption has been somewhat hampered by barriers such as reliability and transparency. However, by capitalising on rapid advancements in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), the proptech sector stands to significantly increase prediction accuracy in this area.

As the modelling capabilities of AI-facilitated AVMs become more sophisticated, I expect the utilisation of these tools to increase, resulting in more timely and reliable market data for proptech users.

Of course, it can be difficult to predict long-term trends within any market, and the rapidly evolving proptech industry is certainly no exception. For me, that is what makes it such an exciting environment in which to operate. With so much innovation taking place, capabilities in this space are constantly advancing, and new opportunities seem to emerge on an almost hourly basis.

One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that global proptech has a bright future, and my colleagues and I at PRYPCO remain more committed than ever to driving progress within this dynamic sector.