Commercial property companies are turning to GPS-driven location-based analysis to supercharge the accuracy and profitability of their decision-making.
There are many ways to try and better understand the attractiveness of a property. Foot traffic can be measured using manual counting, laser counting or cameras. Visitor profiles can be created using surveys. Government census data can be trawled through to reveal demographic and population trends.
The reality, however, is that these data gathering techniques are anywhere from inaccurate, not inclusive enough to just outright expensive. Decisions in the multi-billion dollar real estate sector, as a result, are often based on insufficient and unreliable information or just plain-old gut instinct.
This is in stark contrast to the online world, where everything is based on solid data. Location intelligence seeks to remedy this by bringing the data capabilities of the online world to the offline world of bricks and mortar.
Location Intelligence = People Intelligence
It is important to understand that location intelligence is not really about the location, per se. It is about the people coming to the location. Commercial properties need interaction with humans and without this interaction they are relatively meaningless from a business perspective. So, location intelligence is about people-the people coming to a property and the people that can be enticed to come there in the future.
Location analytics provides reliable, accurate data on the visitors that interact with real-world locations. The gateway to this information is the smartphone. PlaceSense partners with mobile app developers, such as weather apps and parking apps, to access location-based data. We are able to use this mobile data, while meeting privacy regulations, because we completely sterilize and anonymize the data. This means we do not know who the individuals are and cannot identify individual information. The data we use is also aggregated, making it fully GDPR compliant to protect the privacy of mobile users.
We make sense out of this data, gathered from millions of devices, by understanding the aggregated groups of visitors to any location. We then cross reference this with additional data sources to understand things like social demographics, purchasing power, genders and age. This information brings immense value to decision makers, especially to those pursuing a retail expansion strategy, as it allows them to understand the profiles of the various types of people visiting a location and the associated retail footfall statistics.
This is revolutionizing the real estate sector by providing accurate and granular information to ensure decisions, and even gut-instinct ones, are backed by the most reliable, up-to-date and insightful data available.
Using location-based data to make smarter decisions
So while as a real estate pro you may have strong instincts, backing your hunch with objective data will dramatically improve your competitive advantage.
Different elements of the real estate industry will have their own specific needs, but overall there are four key areas in which location-based information works to your benefit. Using location-based data you will be able to:
- Improve real estate site selection and investment – With accurate data you can choose the properties that make sense for your budget and goals. Plus, since timing is of the essence, armed with timely and accurate data, you’ll be able to buy and sell at the highest potential, improving your bottom-line.
- Understand visitor behaviors and demographics – By recognizing who is passing by, for how long, and why, you can better determine whether your intentions and the space are a good match. Similarly, if you have a space to fill, using objective data, such as customer footfall, can help you close a tenant, or buyer, that’s sure to be the right fit.
- Identify emerging trends – Real estate is generally a long-term investment. With a grasp on popular areas, new neighborhoods, and more, you can ensure a better understanding of where the market is going, and either purchase, sell, or tweak your business model accordingly.
- Gain a deeper understanding of your competition – Maybe your competitors are doing it right, or maybe not. Rather than falling for copycat practices, gain true insights into how they’re doing with competitor data that includes footfall traffic, visit duration, visit times, and more.
Supercharging Decision-Making
Accurate, granular, location-based GPS data is already providing real estate businesses with unrivaled insights, thanks to PlaceSense. This includes both real-time data as well as access to a data backlog of a year or more.
This eliminates the need for these real estate companies to use antiquated methods to collect footfall numbers or out-dated information. They now have the confidence to be able to back every property and location-based decision with data that helps them get it right time after time.
Using PlaceSense not only saves them hassle, costs and weeks spent on research, it ultimately allows them to achieve better results, faster. Want to learn more about how PlaceSense can improve your real estate business with location-based intelligence? Contact us today!