The Impact of Covid-19 on the Use of Modern Technologies By Real Estate Brokers

Abstract

Real estate brokerage is the activity of matching parties to a real estate transaction. Due to the increasing ease of access to offers posted by sellers and landlords, various challenges in finding solutions that will attract potential customers have appeared before real estate brokers. Given the complexity of the processes in which brokers can participate, the use of modern technologies in real estate brokerage seems to be one way of maintaining and developing the broker industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in the way brokers operate, forcing them to implement or accelerate the use of modern technologies in customer service. Therefore, the main goal of this article is an attempt to diagnose the use of modern technologies and the types of technologies used in customer service by real estate brokers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted in the form of a survey among representatives of the real estate brokerage industry. The answers obtained from the respondents have allowed us to state that real estate agencies use new technologies to a large extent. Over 40% of the interviewees stated that the real estate market has enormous potential for the application of modern technologies. Furthermore, over 70% of the respondents indicated a large or rather large impact of the COVID-19 on the application of modern technologies in the real estate industry. The restrictions related to the epidemic have forced companies to use modern technologies to replace direct contact between the seller and the customer. The research was conducted among real estate brokers in the period between June and October 2020.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the operations of real estate agencies and the attitudes of their clients in Poland

“…Real estate agents started using such tools as Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype, and Messenger. The same conclusions were drawn by Kania and Kmieć (2022) and Najbar (2021) in the analysis of the pandemic's impact on the operations of property brokers and managers in Poland. The pandemic's impact on real estate entities' businesses was also investigated in other countries.…”

“…Changes in Real Estate Agencies' Operations Two questions in the study were related to the issue of new models of office work organisation and the use of new technologies. Although both issues were raised in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, they are directly linked to the fourth industrial revolution that accelerated some changes in the real estate sector (Jeon & Suh, 2017;Kania & Kmieć, 2022) and profoundly altered the way societies, economies, and enterprises work; it also reshaped relations between actors. As for the question concerning the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the organisation of real estate agencies' work, 63% of the respondents noticed such an impact while 34% of the respondents were of a different opinion.…”

“…The Covid-19 pandemic, which was one of the most severe health crises in recent years (Machaczka & Stopa, 2022;Migała-Warchoł & Pichla, 2021;Kinnunen et at., 2021;Banaszyk et al, 2021), affected many aspects of economic activities, including the housing market processes (Bełej, 2022) and even caused fear and anxiety (Loan et al, 2021). Previous studies revealed that coronavirus occurrence contributed to a decrease in the rental prices of flats, altered housing preferences (Tomal & Helbich, 2022), and caused changes in the real estate professionals' operations (Kania & Kmieć, 2022). Still, some significant research gaps can be identified in the last of the mentioned items.…”

Housing Market in Central European City during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Investors in the real estate market may also have continued to engage in a noticeable level of market activity because the market was adjusting to new circumstances. had also an effect on how current technologies are used in the real estate sector (Zysk et al 2022), as the limitations brought on by the epidemic forced businesses to substitute direct customer-seller contact with new technologies (Kania and Kmieć 2022).…”