Ashkan Zandieh

Within a real estate industry not known for transparency, finding verifiable research and statistical information about proptech is an ongoing challenge.

Ashkán Zandieh has worked hard to be such a reliable source through his helming of the Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation (CRETI), a research and consulting company. He created CRETI in 2020 to inform and educate the real estate industry specifically on areas of opportunity in proptech.

Zandieh was in a good position to do so, having spent more than a decade in various capacities helping to build the proptech ecosystem. It gave him a unique view of the real estate tech landscape.

“I would categorize the industry into three buckets,” Zandieh said about the current proptech scene. “There’s the entrepreneurship side, the employment side and venture side. When it comes to entrepreneurship and the employment market in the proptech sector, there has been a remarkable expansion and maturation phase in the industry, a growth and diversification across the board. That’s without a doubt globally.

“Initially, we saw an emphasis on foundational-type roles, but now the industry demands specialized expertise — from AR/VR (augmented reality/virtual reality), to urban planning, to transitioning toward deeper tech integration and optimization.”

As for venture capital, “In terms of funding, I think this is an area of opportunity,” said Zandieh. “Some people are calling it ‘proptech winter.’ I call it a recalibration of the industry. It’s far better to be an optimist than a pessimist. Capital allocation is down, but deal volume up.

“And what we have noticed from 2021 to 2022, there was a decrease in funding. Same thing from ’22 to ’23. The funding dollar volume is down approximately 50 percent, so we’re going from $381 million to $187 million on a weekly average. This was to be expected as the entire tech landscape has experienced that. I think that’s where the opportunity is.”