AI helps connect Australia's fragmented property data

Anwar Malik says artificial intelligence is opening a new phase for Australia's property technology sector by helping connect fragmented property data.

Malik, an independent Proptech entrepreneur, argues that the sector has spent more than a decade building tools for separate parts of a property transaction rather than linking the wider systems involved in property decisions.

He says property is often treated as a single industry, even though it depends on many distinct areas, including planning, titles, utilities, environmental records, hazards, valuation, finance, construction, legal processes and government data.

"Property looks like one industry from the outside, but in fact, it is planning, titles, utilities, environment, hazards, valuation, finance, construction, legal, government data and many other systems. They were never designed to work together, and they are owned by different organisations with different standards, technology and incentives," Malik said.

Investment has continued to flow into the sector. Malik cited figures tracked by the Proptech Association Australia showing that at least AUD $274 million was identified across the Australian sector from late 2019.

He says most of that money went into products tied to transactions, including property search, lead generation, advertising, finance, and the buying and selling process. In his view, that pace of development reflected commercial incentives rather than any reluctance within the industry to expand further.

Data silos

Malik says AI now offers a way to connect previously separate streams of information and use them to answer questions that matter to buyers, including issues that do not directly lead to a sale or finance outcome.

One challenge is the structure of Australia's property data itself. Companies already aggregate planning, environmental and property datasets, but the work remains technically difficult because Australia's eight jurisdictions use different systems, formats and terminology.

"PropTech has been developing for well over a decade, and at least $274 million in investment was identified across the Australian sector from late 2019, based on transactions tracked by the Proptech Association Australia. However, historically, much of that technology has solved individual pieces of the property puzzle," Malik said.

Malik has applied that view to his own platform, KRAYN, which he says uses a decision engine to compare available property and government data with a buyer's intended use for a site.

"Bringing property data together is not new. There are already companies aggregating planning, environmental, property and other datasets, and we are seeing more of them. It is technically difficult, particularly across eight Australian jurisdictions that use different systems, formats and terminology," Malik said.

"But I was able to create a decision engine whose Site Intelligence reads available property and government data against the buyer's stated plan, identifying whether the plan is permitted, what constraints may affect it, what can be verified and what requires further investigation," Malik said.

Role of AI

Malik draws a distinction between using AI to speed up software creation and designing a property assessment system. He says AI made development more efficient, but the rules, safeguards and reasoning behind the system still required human design and testing.

"AI-assisted development made it possible to build something of this scale far more efficiently, but AI did not produce the decision engine itself. The methodology, decision structure, relationships between evidence, rules, safeguards and the way the system reaches and explains its conclusions all had to be designed and continually tested," Malik said.

That point is central to his broader argument that AI will not remove the role of professional advisers in property transactions. Instead, he says, it can reduce the time spent searching multiple disconnected systems and allow specialists to focus on issues that require judgement.

"Legal interpretation, physical inspection, structural assessment, engineering design, site-specific testing, planning discretion, valuation, finance and the acceptance of risk will continue to require qualified people," he said.

"Experts like lawyers will become more valuable because less time is spent finding basic information across disconnected systems. Technology should bring the right expert into the process earlier and hand them a better-defined problem to solve," Malik said.

Malik says KRAYN reports are designed to surface follow-up issues as well as answers. According to him, public sample reports generate an average of 16 questions each. Where available evidence can resolve those questions, the report provides an answer and supporting material. Where it cannot, the report identifies what still needs to be checked and who should confirm it.

"While existing PropTech can provide property data and tell the buyer what is there, KRAYN is designed to help them understand what that information means for their decision," Malik said.