By 2025 the volume of global data will grow to an impressive 180 billion terabytes. The amount of real estate data is also increasing exponentially. Thanks to new technologies such as smart data analysis and machine learning platforms, this vast amount of information can now be successfully used to better understand the real estate market and make smarter investment decisions.

Most important task: Turning data into real knowledge

Data is becoming more and more the fuel of many industries and increasingly decides on the success or failure of a business. This is especially true for the real estate industry. The basis for sound decisions is information, but it usually has to be gathered from various sources and is often available in formats that are difficult to compare. Even for specialists it is impossible to capture and analyse this wealth of information in a short time. On the other hand, if you have the right technology to convert data into useful knowledge and use it as a basis for decision-making, you will be able to shine on the market.

Advantage through the learning analysis platform technology

Appropriate technologies are now available for the real estate industry that can perform market and real estate portfolio analyses qualitatively better, more accurately and faster than any human being. In addition, a suitably well-trained artificial intelligence (AI) recognises patterns in market movements and location developments that often remain hidden from the human observer. One example of this advanced technology is the realxdata platform. This is not a classic database, but a dynamic AI-supported portfolio management and market analysis engine.

Functionality of a Smart Data Analysis Engine using the realxdata platform as an example:

1. more sources, more data: At realxdata, terabytes of raw data from over 100 different government and commercial sources converge in a meta-database. This data is collected and structured by the AI.

2. tailored market knowledge: Depending on the research question, data sets are generated from market-specific, geographical and socio-economic data that are tailored to the respective location and for a specific period of time.

3. portfolio optimization: The market and location data sets are merged with the user's digitized portfolio data in the realxdata engine. Depending on the task and question, the user then receives answers to investment questions practically at the push of a button.

4. fast and cost-efficient handling: The results can be retrieved flexibly via tablet, smartphone, etc. Released information can also be shared with other people - whether with property developers, offices, brokers, potential real estate buyers or sellers. This alone enables transactions to be carried out much faster and more cost-effectively than before.

Algorithm beats experience? Wrong question.

Algorithms and AI do not replace the investment and portfolio specialist, but make him faster and better. As a result, corresponding engines provide a very well-founded basis for decision-making, offering a certain protection against human error and revealing market patterns, trends and investment opportunities that would otherwise have remained hidden. In the highly competitive real estate market, such a knowledge and time advantage offers an enormous economic advantage.

About the author

Dr. Titus Albrecht is Managing Director of realxdata and a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

About realxdata

The realxdata GmbH is one of Germany's leading technology companies specializing in smart and deep-data analyses for decision-makers in the real estate and financial sectors as well as in politics and administration. As an independent service partner, realxdata digitizes, structures and visualizes real estate and geographical data and links these AI-based with market influencing key figures from over 100 sources. This enables market and urban planning analyses, property and portfolio evaluations at the push of a button. Founded in 2016, the company employs 31 people at its headquarters in Berlin and its own research and development hub in Barcelona. Managing directors are Dr. Titus Albrecht, Iñaki Merino, Stefan Nusche and Daniel Sprünker. Further information: www.realxdata.com