PropTech has been pitched as the industry’s great problem-solver for more than a decade but a new survey suggests it is leaving the property world divided rather than united.
According to research from Inventory Base more than half of UK property professionals (55%) say they never use PropTech tools, while almost a third (29%) rely on them every day.
The rest fall somewhere in between, with 48% declaring PropTech “not important at all” to their work, compared with 25% who consider it “essential.”
That split is echoed in the perceived value of these tools. Just under one in five professionals (19%) say PropTech delivers strong returns on investment, while more than half (52%) believe it offers little or no value.
COMPLIANCE AND ADMIN
The most common uses for PropTech are fairly practical: compliance (16%), marketing (14%), admin such as scheduling and invoicing (13%), and communication (13%). Yet almost half of respondents (48%) believe the tools they use fail to meaningfully solve their real business challenges.
Integration, or rather, the lack of it, remains the biggest gripe. Nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents said new products don’t connect properly with their existing CRMs, despite marketing promises of “seamlessness.”
Cost, patchy onboarding support, and a lack of hard evidence on ROI were also flagged as barriers to adoption.
DIVISIVE AREA
Sián Hemming-Metcalfe, Operations Director at Inventory Base, says: “These candid insights from property professionals shouldn’t be ignored.
“When one segment of the industry is fully bought into PropTech and another dismisses it entirely, it shows that the sector is still divisive. Yet to be a force for good, technology needs to unite, not fragment, the industry.
“The word ‘seamless’ is everywhere in PropTech marketing, but when uptake and satisfaction are so uneven, seamlessness becomes impossible.
“Yes, there are some incredible, transformational tools out there. But there’s also a lot of noise, too many products solving problems that don’t exist, or demanding that professionals adopt entirely new ecosystems, rather than integrating into the systems already in use.”
CLOSING THE GAP
And she adds: “After more than a decade of innovation, PropTech remains at a crossroads. Industry professionals are bombarded with new tools and ‘next big things’, creating saturation, confusion, and fatigue.
“As a result, the sector is now divided between those who swear by technology and those who see it as a distraction or a drain.
“The biggest challenge now is closing that gap. Unless PropTech solutions are designed to fit into existing workflows and deliver real, measurable value, the sector will struggle to fulfil its original promise, to make life easier, more efficient, and more profitable for the people who keep the property industry moving.”
