The Spanish real estate industry continues to adapt to the changing economic paradigm and to society's new lifestyle and consumption habits. In this context of technological revolution, real estate companies' investment in technology has grown by 20% year-on-year in 2023 and will grow by another 10% in 2024. These are figures from ENLACE, a consultancy firm specialising in connecting technology and innovation with the real estate and financial world.
According to the company, companies in the real estate sector in Spain will invest an average of €100,000 in technological tools and their digitalisation process this year. It is worth noting that there is a notable difference depending on the size of the company: micro and small companies (up to 49 employees) will make an average outlay of around €20,000 this year; medium-sized companies (up to 249 employees) will invest around €80,000; and large companies (250 employees or more) will invest an average of €150,000 in technology in 2023.
"We are living in a time of unprecedented technological and digital explosion, both because of the great ramification caused by each new advance in technologies such as Blockchain, AI or IoT, and because of the increasingly rapid acceptance of this progress by society. In this sense, the way in which the consumer comes into contact with the real estate market has changed forever, which is why the companies in the industry are being forced to bet on its constant updating to avoid its disappearance," say Vicenç Hernández, Marc Ollé, Sergi Brun and Francesc Salas, founding partners of ENLACE.
In fact, despite the current context of inflation and rising living costs, this upward trend in investment in technology by companies in the real estate sector will continue to consolidate next year. According to ENLACE forecasts, in 2024 these figures will increase by 10% compared to this year, reaching an average investment per company of €110,000 per year for technological growth.
Technology is consolidating its position as a key to business success
ENLACE assures that global technological investment in Spain will reach 60,000 million euros this year, 5% more than in 2022, and investment in ICT will grow above GDP. In the current context of technological transformation and paradigm shift in the business fabric, this upward trend will continue for another five years, until 2028.
According to the consultancy firm, the technological adaptation of Spanish companies increases their survival rate in their first 5 years of life to 68%. This indicator showed a survival rate of 45.1% after five years in 2020, according to the report 'Harmonised Demographics of Companies', by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In other words, thanks to the disruptive role of technology in the business model of organisations, this figure could increase by 50%.