'Proptech' firms angle for riches in US real estate

New technology such as machine-learning algorithms coupled with improved heating and cooling units that can be controlled by software helped cut electricity consumption at Rudin Management, a large New York City landlord, by 41 per cent since 2005. The drop in electricity consumption at Rudin's 16 office towers - including usage for everything ranging from heating and air-conditioning to operating the elevators - occurred even as the individual tenants boosted usage in their own offices over the past dozen years by 11 per cent, data from Rudin showed. The advent of smart building technology is one of the ways scores of property-focused startups known as "proptech" firms are trying to tap growing reams of data in commercial real estate to increase productivity. Venture capital in recent years has ploughed more than US$2 billion into proptech firms that cull data from leasing contracts, capital projects, public records or a building's infrastructure.