Cecille Weldon is a Board member and Sustainability Advisor for the Proptech Association of Australia

What is Proptech?

Proptech is short for property technology.  The proptech sector which encompasses over 500 tech businesses in Australia, underpins the real estate industry’s digital transformation journey by providing solutions which are helping to improve customer experiences, advance health and safety outcomes, grow efficiency in cost and operational effectiveness, increase business resilience and manage risk. And also empowering property consumers to access better information about property as they design build, renovate, buy, rent and invest in homes, apartments, land and developments.

Proptech spans the entire breadth of the real estate life cycle, starting at the beginning when assessing a potential development site, through to the architectural design process, the building and construction phase, the buying and selling transactional part, and the important upgrade opportunities and living in your home more effectively to achieve comfort and reduced running costs.

The proptech industry is agile, responsive and able to enter into this incumbent real estate industry and property marketing system with tech-powered solutions (e.g. data driven, AI, machine learning) which challenge the existing processes and pathways.

The Proptech Association of Australia

PTAA is a not-for-profit trade association that is a champion of the real estate technology industry, - emerging tech entrepreneurs who are seeking to deliver better, quicker solutions: property experiences, insights and access. They are driving the proptech conversation, and connecting proptechs to industry.

They champion best practice, quality, collaboration and consistency and seek to drive growth through education, standards and industry insights to improve the experiences of our audience which includes: property and construction institutions, suppliers (proptechs), agents (intermediaries), owners, sellers, buyers, investors and tenants.

Link to PTAA

Cecille Weldon - Proptech entrepreneur

The Liveability Proptech and Training for residential real estate agents

This Banksia Foundation award-winning proptech and training program for residential real estate agents was created by Cecille Weldon and acquired by CSIRO, Australia's peak scientific body, in 2016. It is the world’s first features-based building performance property marketing framework and has pioneered an innovative way to identify and communicate the health and lifestyle benefits of a new set of property features.

Development of the Liveability Features Framework

From the outset, 14 important strategic considerations for success were identified as being essential to delivering a solution which would benefit multiple stakeholders in the housing industry. Core to this was to engage the range of property consumers, real estate agents and lenders with trusted information and data at point of sale or rent in order to leverage the emerging market in residential real estate: health, efficiency, comfort, community

The 14 measures of success achieved in the development of this framework 

• The repositioning of sustainability in the marketplace

• Identification of key communication barriers to consumers

• Identification of key barriers to real estate industry uptake to driving a market in properties with the potential for reduced running costs

• Identification of customer profiles with interest in homes with Liveability Features™[1]

• Information and support at the key touch points in the buying, selling and renting cycle

• Integration across all markets – new and existing homes

• Integration across all interest groups – renters, owners and investors

• Integration with existing property marketing assets and platforms – online and print

• Integration with professional development training pathways

• Integration and support of existing state mandatory disclosure regimes

• Identification of any missing information/standards from industry for the buying and selling touch points

• Collaborate with industry to develop ‘proof’ of features at time of sale to enable property marketing standards for features where there are none currently

• Compliance with ACCC rulings on green marketing

• Real Estate training and new property appraisal process (proptech) available to all real estate brands – sales and property management.

The New Value Proposition for Residential Property Marketing

Liveability is about creating your best home: healthy, efficient, comfortable and connected to your local community”

The Liveability Features Framework was developed from within the property marketing industry over a four-year period then acquired and further developed by CSIRO, Australia’s peak scientific body.

It is an integrated proptech and training solution that addresses all touchpoints of real estate property marketing:

• ·the real estate agent (sales and property management and potential for valuers)

• the consumer (buyers, sellers, renters, investors)

• the property (new and existing homes)

• the online and print property marketing platforms (property listing resources)

New Category of Property Features

The Liveability Features Framework developed in consultation with industry organisations in the sustainable design, building/construction, manufacturing and assessment industries and are endorsed and supported by them and have been validated by CSIRO.

It is not a rating system, it is a benchmarked appraisal checklist specifically developed by CSIRO for the real estate industry to be able to simply and effectively identify a new collection of 17 benchmarked property features into the point of sale or rent. These are called Liveability Features.

Liveability Features offer the potential for reduced running costs and increased comfort if used correctly by the occupant.

This enables specially trained real estate agents to integrate these 17 new property features into their normal processes in a robust and systematic way. Thereby providing important and timely information about the potential for ongoing affordability of a property for sale or rent.

This delivers a fresh and trusted conversation into the real estate moment and catalyzes lead generation and upgrade opportunities across the property sector – delivering better Australian Homes and boosting the professional standing and relevance of real estate agents.   

Liveability Proptech

The Liveability Proptech which is used by the trained Liveability Real Estate Specialist agents is accessible from all mobile devices. It enables a trained sales agent or property manager to deliver the free Liveability Features Appraisal for property owners and investors across Australia. 

This specialist property appraisal captures 17 additional property features during the traditional appraisal process which are benchmarked and verified. Thereby capturing high quality property data about a new cluster of property features which identify the potential for ongoing affordability.

The Liveability Proptech also automatically generates a customised Liveability Features Listing Image (see image) for each approved property which the agent then uploads into the photo gallery section of the online property listing. (see below)

This enables the agent to offer a higher quality customer experience and additional marketing opportunities for home owners and investors who have invested in these features. The Liveability Features Appraisal enables these new property features to be showcased during property marketing in the same way as existing premium features such as “European appliances”.

Compliance IT Platform

The Liveability Features Framework is also underpinned by compliance technology that links the listing agent with the Proptech-enabled Livability Features Appraisal data and the online property listing.

This ensures that the listing agent is authorised to appraise, list and sell properties with Liveability Features and is well trained to answer consumer questions about these features and correctly position them in the market.

New Real Estate Agent Category

As the ‘real estate moment’ is short but influential in driving property and renovation plans it is important that agents are trained to correctly identify these new Liveability Features and know why they are important to Liveability potential. Therefore, core to the Liveability Features Framework is a new professional pathway in real estate, the Liveability Real Estate Specialist.

This specialisation builds on their existing sales or property marketing training and is updated every 6 months and formally refreshed every 12 months to keep abreast of changes in the appraisal benchmarks and innovation in the built environment sector.

Liveability Real Estate Specialist is a nationally recognised training and membership program providing exclusive access the new proptech appraisal checklist and unique property marketing icons (Liveability Features Listing image) with which to appraise and market homes with any of these Liveability Features.

The Language of Liveability

This robust framework enables the real estate industry to professionally identify these new features and simultaneously validate, support and drive a new value proposition for new and existing homes. It provides clear and trusted icons in online and print property marketing and “Open Homes” about these Liveability Features which directly connects the property with the needs of the new property consumer who are wanting information on the ongoing affordability potential of a property. 

Even more, the message of the 17 Things™ can be shared by designers, builders, assessors and manufacturers to create a clear pathway for the consumer from design to build/renovate to sell (see example following)

The 17 Things™

• What to look for when buying or renting

• What to plan for when renovating or building

• What you know will be recognised when selling

The 17 Things™, the Liveability property listing image and icons and liveabilty.com.au are fundamental elements of the companion consumer engagement and communication resources within the Liveability Features Framework.

This is an important aspect of the framework as it repositions ‘sustainability’ an aspirational value proposition in the context of the property marketing industry.

This consumer element of the framework also includes ‘the language of liveability’ which identifies this collection of benchmarked property features as an integrated element of “your best home: healthy, efficient, comfortable and connected to your local community”

The language clusters are deliberately created to reinforces and clarifies key elements of the framework in an accumulative manner to retain meaning and relevance across all customer profiles. This layering of information is an important aspect of the Liveability Real Estate framework’s ability to be at the one time ‘simple’ and ‘robust’.

In addition, the consumer portal liveability.com.au supports consumers to use features of their home more effectively and create a great life in their home. The website also assists the industries represented by the 17 Liveability Features to enter ‘the real estate moment’ as “important” and “aspirational” property features and creates an effective information source for renovators on this cluster of providers and products.

Therefore, the Liveability Features Framework addresses the two important aspects of “Liveability’ whether you are a renter, investor or owner:

1. The property features in the home

2. How you live in your home to bring these features to life

The 17 Liveability Features (the 17 Things™)

Each feature is benchmarked by industry partners. There are 4 features that require independent proof. A property must have a minimum 6 of the features marked with an asterisk to qualify for the Liveability Features™ icon on a property listing. These have been validated by CSIRO[2]

Location

1. Climate zone for this property

2. Living locally

Floor plan and layout

3. Orientation*

4. Cross-ventilation*

5. Zoning*

Key building structure elements

6. Insulation* (independent proof required)

7. Density of building materials

8. Windows (glazing)* (independent proof required)

9. Shading or sun control*

Important energy and water saving inclusions

10. Efficient heating and cooling devices*

11. Energy efficient lighting*

12. Efficient hot water system*

13. Solar photovoltaic (PV) system* (independent proof required)

14. Low water garden*

15. Water efficiency devices*

16. Rainwater tanks

Energy rating

17. Energy Rating* (independent proof required) 

• [1] These are property features which have the potential for reduced running costs and increased comfort if used correctly by the occupant.

• [2] The CSIRO science review of the Liveability Features Framework has validated:  The set of 17 Liveability Features, Their classification as Liveability Features (property features which offer the potential for reduced running costs and increased comfort if used correctly by the occupant), The benchmarks for each Liveability Feature which the property must meet. These are relevant to existing homes and are updated annually.