WIRE FS: At the forefront of real estate digitilisation

The goal is to develop technological tools leveraging Artificial Intelligence that will bring greater transparency and simplify processes in the real estate sector. HD 360’s investment in Cypriot PropTech company WiRE FS was carried out earlier this year after all relevant procedures were completed.

HD 360 Ltd, a subsidiary of the fast-growing insurance company Hellas Direct, invested in WiRE FS, a company focused on leveraging technology to optimise processes in relation to property management, bringing greater transparency in the real estate sector. The company is developing technological tools that will set new standards and raise the bar in many areas of the real estate sector, including valuation, agency, and insurance among others, combining data analytics and Artificial Intelligence with their team’s expertise.

“The successful completion of HD 360 Ltd’s investment in WiRE serves a dual purpose. Firstly, they have embraced our vision to set new standards for the Cyprus real estate market. Secondly, the trust shown to us by an institutional investor that has successfully leveraged technology to bring innovation and change to a traditional sector, such as insurance, gives us the drive to bring our ambitious plans to fruition,” said Pavlos Loizou, Managing Director WiRE FS.

At the forefront of the digitalisation of the real estate industry, WiRE has been developing bespoke tools that automate processes, analyse, and visualise data, providing insight to market dynamics and consumer behaviour.

Property Technology (or PropTech) is the application of platform economics and information technology to real estate markets. The goals of real estate technology include reducing paperwork by digitalising and automating processes, making transactions quicker, more efficient and more transparent, and providing insight through big data analytics. PropTech often overlaps with Financial Technology (FinTech), given the close link between the real estate and finance markets.

Data is the game-changer for the real estate market, not just as collected from consumer insights, but integrated with market, retailer, building and occupier data. As a result, the modern property mantra is no longer “location, location, location”, Loizou said, but “location, experience, analytics.

Technology, finance and real estate are evolving into one of the strongest triptychs of the world economy. This specific triptych involves the terms FinTech and PropTech, which refer to the technologies that are developed for the finance and real estate sector respectively.

It has become increasingly apparent that these two sectors are intrinsically linked and anything that happens in one sector has a direct effect on the other. When demand for properties and prices rise, banks benefit since the collateralised mortgages in their portfolio automatically have the value of their security increase. Also, when banks show a greater appetite to lend to property buyers, then it benefits the real estate market as demand rises. The same, of course, applies to negative developments.

The technologies developed for these two sectors, FinTech and PropTech, complement and interact with each other. Abroad, where these technologies are more advanced, we often see a blur around certain services or tools as to whether they fall within the definition of FinTech or PropTech. Analysts refer to FinTech as PropTech’s “Big Brother” and there is good reason for it: with FinTech being at a far more advanced stage, people involved with PropTech have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes made in developing the technology for the finance sector. What is more, had it not been for the proven financial viability and success of similar ideas in FinTech, several pioneering, and on many occasions crazy ideas that emerge from the PropTech sector, might not have been received with the same appreciation.

“With technology being part of our DNA, we support the efforts made to simplify processes in the real estate sector, which is a key pillar of the Cyprus economy,” says Michael Antoniou, Product Manager at Hellas Direct. “It has been proven in practice that technology has changed both the business world and the society for the better, particularly in Cyprus where the use of technology is still relatively limited. These initiatives are critical in transforming the country’s business culture, bring transparency, and increase competition and accessibility of products” he added.