The last decade in real estate, and a peek into the next one
0Reported today on TechCrunch
For the full article visit: https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/12/the-last-decade-in-real-estate-and-a-peek-into-the-next-one/
The last decade in real estate, and a peek into the next one
Allen Miller
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Allen Miller is a principal at Oak HC/FT based in San Francisco. He's excited by bold entrepreneurs building great companies across categories, especially in fintech.
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Financial technology startups emerged as serious challengers to financial services in 2017
As we barrel towards the start of a new decade, it's amazing to think about the ongoing transformation within real estate.
In the U.S., housing's contribution to our GDP is ~15-18% spread across residential transactions, construction and housing services (i.e. rent, utilities, insurance, etc.) For the average homeowner, their primary residence is the biggest component of their net worth. And for employers, affordable housing programs can increase employee retention, productivity and success on the job. Apple, Google and Facebook have all launched different programs focused on addressing the high cost of living, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Technology has allowed for some real progress
Technology has accelerated the rate of progress within the real estate vertical. There are now more than a dozen real estate tech companies valued at an aggregate ~$75 billion (depending on where The We Company lands in the coming months). This batch includes three publicly-traded companies (Zillow, Real Page and Redfin), two others primed to go public in the next year (Airbnb and Procore) and one other that recently put its IPO plans on hold (Lemonade).
New entrants have succeeded by bringing a fresh take to the category and/or creating entirely new catego