Today we talk to Alejandro Garcia Manic, cofounder of Gleensite.com, an up and coming proptech startup based in London
TPD: How did you meet your cofounder?
We met years ago while we were both doing our study exchange programs. I remember we would discuss about the different start-ups that were being developed and the latest tech innovations and how we would like to make a positive impact on society. We discussed many ideas at the time and we discarded many of them too.
TPD: How did you come up with the idea of Gleensite?
After having worked in our respective fields for some years and keeping up to date with the developments in the tech world, Gleensite started as a concept; we thought that one of the most important economic decisions an individual would do is to purchase their home or to invest in property. So how could someone be certain they have made the best decision with so many parts moving constantly? And, on top of it all the tedious hours of research that an individual undergoes to get some insights.
We also knew that the use of data to make business or investment decisions was the way forward and we noticed that the real estate/property market players were not always leveraging the full potential of analytics. Then it sparked ‘what if we could develop a platform that offered real time predictive analytics, so that real estate/property market participants could know in advance how a region, country or city might evolve in the years to come, allowing them to make faster and better decisions.
TPD: What does Gleensite do? What are the main advantages of using Gleensite?
Predictive analytics is transforming many industries, including the real estate industry. Traditionally, conventional analytics and data sources in this sector have made it challenging to tackle data for quick and actionable insights. However, new and unconventional data sources are emerging to identify valuable trends, benefiting both real estate professionals and consumers.
This way Gleensite helps Asset & Fund Managers, investors, corporates and individuals from all over the world to efficiently deploy their money when they make real estate decisions.
Combined with Big Data, AI has the potential to transform real estate, and we help our clients to get ahead of the market. By using a large number of traditional and non-conventional data points to accurately anticipate trends in the property market — through a user-friendly platform — we aim to reduce the uncertainty of our clients when investing or operating in the property market. For instance, we provide insights on how a certain area (e.g. region, country, city) might look like in the next 5 to 15 years, while always specifying the origin of our data sources and the confidence level of our predictive analyses for each year.
The demand for real estate data is stronger than ever. Retailers, landlords and owners are all investing in numbers, from customer profiles to demographics, store types and traffic, conversion rates and social media metrics, to help make smarter and better strategic decisions.
TPD: What data sources do you use?
We use open source data and acquire relevant data from third party providers, which we ensure meet data quality standards, and combine it with our machine learning algorithms to provide predictive insights. In addition, clients have the option to upload their own datasets too so that they can customise it to their needs even more.
TPD: How can non-traditional data be harnessed in real estate investing?
We frequently see irritation with the disconnect between the availability of data and the difficulty of using it for quick and actionable insights. Being slow to identify subtle trends means missing opportunities. While, being a first mover on a good and discrete opportunity translates into significant advantage.
Conventional analytical methods and data sources can make it challenging to formulate clear assumptions and build solid business cases. Analysts must go through millions of files or data points to extract clear patterns and sometimes place their bets with few supporting tools to help glean insights from that material. By the time a business can collect, compile, quality check and process the data necessary to take action, the best opportunities may no longer be there.
New and unconventional data sources are becoming increasingly relevant (e.g. environment, pollution, crime rate, change in number of supermarkets, number of cars or schools in the area etc.). While this information is not typically considered real estate data or relevant industry data, analysing this type of data along with the traditional data points can more accurately predict areas of potential for value increase or decrease.
TPD: Who do you think your early adopters of Gleensite will be?
We are working on establishing partnerships with 4 main industry segments within the real estate market: Residential and commercial real estate corporates (such as Asset and fund managers, banks or advisors), Logistic companies and Retail.
TPD: What’s your take on the Coronavirus? How will it change real estate investing and how can technology help deal with it?
The current crisis has led us to investigate and highlight the differences in impact between countries or regions. The pandemic clearly puts all theoretical models to the test. The adequacy of health systems, the robustness of technological infrastructures, the limits of political and economic ideologies, the culture of consumption, everything is under severe strain. In addition to its dramatic human impact, the crisis could change many aspects of the world as we know it. The real estate sector being highly dependent on macro-environment, could also be heavily impacted in the coming months and years. We are looking at the system as a whole to perform predictive analysis under different possible scenarios and levels of speculation.
TPD: Where do you see Gleensite in 5 years time?
We conceived Gleensite as a global idea and platform from the beginning and we are working hard to consolidate, scale and help as many customers as possible. Our software and structure were developed with a global vision from the first day and in 5 years’ time we aim to be present in more than one continent.
About Gleensite:
Gleensite is a London based property technology company that uses big data & AI to predict the trends and evolution of the real estate/property market. By using conventional and non-conventional data points, Gleensite provides insights on how a certain area (e.g. region, country, city) might look like in the next 5 to 15 years. This way Gleensite helps Asset & Fund Managers, investors, corporates and individuals from all over the world to efficiently deploy their money when they make real estate decisions. Daniel Kagane and Alejandro Garcia Manic founded the company in 2019. For more information, visit www.gleensite.com
