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UAE's proptech community to disrupt and boost growth

The GCC's first PropTech Community was officially launched in the UAE on Tuesday, with the new initiative brought together PropTech entrepreneurs, mentors and investors to shed light on different proptech-related topics from angel investing to property management and energy optimisation.
The event hosted three tech companies, who shared their disruptive business models.
The UAE's first PropTech Community - a virtual platform to facilitate all the industry players - aims to keep its members updated by giving real time information, networking (online and offline) and helping the industry grow, by introducing latest innovation and new business strategies.
Adel Mawla, managing director at PropTech Community, said: "The UAE is known to be a pioneer of change and we are learning from it. The idea to start the UAE-centric realty community stems from growth in the proptech community locally. We sensed a gap that could be filled by bringing in all the stake holders together."
The ever-growing real estate sector contributed 13.6 per cent to Dubai's GDP in 2018, according to the Dubai Land Department, compared to 6.9 per cent in 2017, while the construction sector's contribution to the GDP reached 6.4 per cent in 2018 compared to 6.2 per cent in both 2016 and 2017.
The surge in sector figures also indicates growth in adoption of latest technologies like artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, virtual reality, augmented reality and Big Data by organisations.
Fadi Nwilati, CEO of Kaizen Asset Management, said: "Adopting a culture of innovation today is an option for many to thrive but also a necessity for most to sustain."
Over the last 20 years the UAE has been at the forefront of construction and real estate, often leading the world in the most innovative designs and landmarks globally attracting international capital.
In the short term, the PropTech Community intends to educate the market about the latest PropTech trends and technologies; in the long term, it aims to bring together proptech entrepreneurs, investors and mentors to answer the latest industry challenges.
The PropTech Community plans to bring awareness to decision makers and signing up corporate members to foster a proptech ecosystem in the region.
The primary role of the PropTech Community is to update the players of potential opportunities/threats before being disrupted, and secondary, offer members investment and business development opportunities.
"The proptech verticals are many so multiple businesses are impacted; someone had to take action to lead a community so we did. We want to attract the real estate and construction industry pioneers to join our community and we have future plans in proptech that all members will be excited about" added Mawla.
Tge PropTech Community is the first-of-its-kind initiative in the GCC and is highly needed in these growing economies with young demographics and taps into many verticals in the largest sector to yet be disrupted.
"This community will be the platform for future proptech-related initiatives that will bring innovation to the real estate and construction industries," concluded Mawla.
- business@khaleejtimes.com