When shelter-in-place fallout hit commercial real estate, proptech joined the rescue party.

“Virtual tours with 360-degree cameras have gone through the roof; it’s skyrocketed for us,” said Dan Palmeri, SIOR, in an article published in the Fall 2020 issue of SIOR Report.

“Helping clients tour a space without physically walking through it is huge,” said Palmeri, a senior director specializing in tenant representation at Cushman & Wakefield in Las Vegas. “Every big landlord is now requesting that their brokers put together virtual tours, and they don’t really care how they do it as long as they get it right.”

Businesses offering cameras and services include GeoCV, VPiX 360, Rescan, and Matterport, the company that pioneered the technology. Matterport technology enables brokers to scan a space and create a 3D model, or “digital twin.” From there, brokers can generate 3D tours, 4K photos, short videos, and schematic floor plans. Using a unique web link, they can post 3D virtual tours to their website or other sites and email the link to prospective tenants or share it on social media.

Space management software such as Space IQ and i-Office has also gained greater attention as a result of the pandemic. The software provides real-time metrics such as total square footage, percentage of space used, and operational costs per square foot. As a result, tenants can effectively plan workspace layout and usage. Chris Falk, SIOR, executive vice president of Newmark Grubb Acres in Salt Lake City, said many of his clients had considered putting sublease space on the market, but the software helped them make more informed decisions. “Tenants are realizing that if they’re going to bring people back and space things out, they’re going to be going from 140 square feet per person to 175–180, so they’re going to need every bit of that space,” he said.

For more on how commercial brokers are using proptech tools, read the article in the SIOR Report at sior.com.