The rise of the machines is upon us. We now go online to pay bills, renew our car tax, search for ‘the one’, and everything in between. Even the property market – seen by many as behind the times – has been ‘disrupted’ by technology and it’s now easier than ever before to sell and search for property. But there’s more to it than this – while online estate agents have made property searches quicker and easier, there are also less obvious ways through which the property market is transforming through technology. Here are 6 of the most important changes:

Online Real Estate Searching

Let’s tackle the obvious first. Online property searches provide an easy-to-navigate and easily customisable interface for potential house buyers to use. With just a few clicks, you can set parameters such as the number of bedrooms, the specific radius or other important features such as a conservatory or an en-suite. These online searching tools aggregate available properties from a range of high-street estate agents, meaning you have a pool of property to choose from. This is the online equivalent of walking through several high streets and spending what may seem like an aeon squinting through estate agents’ windows. Websites like Zoopla and Rightmove show available properties from their available agents and allow users to set a variety of filters on their property search. Online-only estate agents like Purplebricks have been able to reduce their commissions by avoid renting expensive high-street premises. These changes mean it’s a good time to be a house buyer!

The native ability of the computer to present a variety of media (text, pictures and video) on the same page also gives us another advantage over the house buyers of yesteryear: virtual tours.

Virtual Property Tours

Virtual tours are giving buyers and sellers a way of experiencing a property from their sofas. Now, we can get a better sense of a place without having to visit it – and this is a trend which looks set to continue. Google’s cardboard, for example, has brought virtual reality (VR) headsets into the mainstream. How long will it be until VR headsets are as commonplace as smartphones? When this happens, the online property experience will be changed again. Imagine putting on a visor and being transported into the property – being able to wander through a house at your own leisure and to look at details as though you were actually there. Businesses such as VR Property Marketing have begun trying to capitalise on the VR movement, and it’s easy to see how the property market could benefit from innovations such as these.

Finding Housemates

As well as those would-be house buyers and sellers, the rental market has also been significantly impacted by the spread of technology. Short-term renting has boomed – thanks largely to the popularity of sites like Airbnb. Now, any spare room can be let on a nightly basis, or more long term options give live-in landlords options to monetise their space – helping to contribute to their monthly financial outgoings. There are an abundance of sites which can be used to search for and find housemates – from social media like Facebook and Twitter, to more specific solutions such as easy roommate and spare room which allow you to search user profiles to find the best matched person for your property.

Legal Proceedings

The other side of property buying and selling has also been transformed by technology. This is the back and forth between solicitors, banks and the Land Registry which goes on every time a place is bought or sold. Take for example, Hoowla – a piece of software which maintains customer details and records activities on an account. The Land Registry, in fact, has announced that it will explore emerging technologies as part of its ‘Digital Street’ initiative.

Blockchain

Newer technologies, particularly those built on blockchains are generating loads of buzz at the moment. Most of the reports around blockchains mention Bitcoin and its meteoric price rise during 2017. In fact, late last year, two UK homes were bought using the cryptocurrency through property developer, Go Homes. Blockchain, though, is more than digital currency – and to think of the technology in such narrow terms limits appreciation for its potential uses. It is a highly-secure system which could store Land Registry entries, contract details and any amount of other information. In the future, contracts could be executed and exchanged over blockchains – this could make the process quicker than it is at present.

An Easier Ride for Renters

Those who can’t yet afford their own home (or who have made the choice that they don’t want to buy) have traditionally got the hard end of the bargain. The rent they pay all goes into reducing someone else’s mortgage while they received no recognition in their credit score for paying their rent on time. There are plenty of reasons why your credit score is important – too many to go into here – but in short, the better credit rating you have, the higher your chances of getting a mortgage sooner. However, with Credit Builder it is now possible to improve your credit rating by paying your rent on time. Sign up for free and make rental payments as you normally would. All punctual payments are logged via Experian and help improve your credit score.