Improving Property User’s Satisfaction and Safety through Prop-Tech-enhancedFacilities Management System by Real Estate Professionals

By ESV Clara Lemene Ebere

Globally, the quest for a better and advanced property development and management is paving the way for Prop-Tech, a new segment that fuses technology and real estate by leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT), virtual/augmented reality, smart buildings, digital marketplaces, and big data.

The primary objective of every housing programme is usually tied to the provision of housing units that satisfies the prescribed standards of quality and overall needs of a given user. Judging from this perspectives, it is obvious that the identification of residential satisfaction must give sufficient attention to the needs, preferences and tenants’ quality of life. The proper identification of factors or parameters that determines the extent of satisfaction enjoyed by a tenant, has always been one of the huge challenge facing policy-makers, housing developers, planners and other relevant stakeholders engaged in housing delivery operation.

Multiple variables relating to housing such as building condition, security, livability and the neighborhood quality, frequently influence user’s satisfaction to a large degree. The concept of an ideal home is such that takes into cognizance certain attributes that are not limited to physical, architectural and engineering components of a house alone but extends a bit further to include the social, behavioral, cultural and personal characteristics of occupants as well as the necessary arrangements for managing the property and users.

The delivery of service to customers entails the execution of predefined procedures which are streamlined to ensure the minimization of overall service time while maximizing quality on the other hand. Technologies such as Computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) software gives facilities managers the ability to plan, execute and monitor all activities involving reactive and planned preventive maintenance, space and move management, asset management and operational facility services.
Decision-making process in facilities management will be given a boost through the integration of disruptive technologies into the task of collecting, storing, retrieving and analyzing information on building facilities. Notable technologies such as building information modelling (BIM) has a wide range of application in areas of Architectural, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO), however, in contemporary times it has been considered too marginal in terms of value addition due to the constantly changing and ever-dynamic situation of the built environment.

Currently, advanced technologies such as Digital Twins (DT) have proven to have the capacity to mimic the real world in order to provide a dynamic representation of assets in real-time. Additionally, Web-based platforms coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled technologies used for interacting with facilities such as virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and augmented (AR) have been harnessed in carrying out more powerful facilities functions compared to the traditional methods employed formerly in facilities management practice. The application of these technologies have allowed facilities managers in the built environment like Estate Surveyors and Valuers to make swift decision without having need to be physically present on site. Tenants are provided with the opportunities to interface with property managers through web-based software integrated with the facilities system like closed circuit television (CCTV).

The computerized database developed for facilities within a property and neighborhood at large will give facilities managers the opportunity to simultaneously evaluate existing facilities condition and monitor changes remotely using satellites.

The satisfaction of users in terms of safety will be increased as technologies such as motion sensors for intruders, automatic fire alarms, facial recognition and biometric capturing systems installed in access areas will promote the psychological well-being of users especially in countries with high security risks.

In adopting pro-tech facilities management, facility cum property managers in developing countries like Nigeria should be encouraged to embrace modern technologies to improve the quality of their service delivered to customers. The government should collaborate with developed nations having sophisticated information technology (IT) in order to foster trainings and workshops of the indigenous facilities managers who seem not be very familiar to the operations of emerging digital technology applicable to the property and facilities management domain.

In the Nigerian real estate space, one of the ways to drive the campaign for a prop-tech real estate services provision and management is for the professional bodies in the built environment, the organized private sector, and the government to forge a common course of action in achieving this.

ESV Clara Lemene Ebere, a registered Estate Surveyor and Valuer, writes from Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.