We’ve been building since the beginning of civilization. From the Great Pyramids to the skyscrapers of today, the built world has always relied on technology. Not always digital, of course – but levers, ramps, and basic tools have powered construction from the start. Every generation added new layers. The Romans brought aqueducts and concrete. The Industrial Revolution gave us elevators and steel frames. Even the first escalator in 19th-century London felt like magic at the time.
So no – technology in real estate isn’t new. But PropTech, as we define it today, is. Most trace its roots to the software layer that started appearing about 50 years ago. That layer is now entering its most interesting phase.
From Admin Panels to Platforms (PropTech V1.0)
Modern PropTech started quietly. In 1971, MRI Software was founded in Cleveland to digitize rent collection, maintenance, and lease files. For years, it had the space to itself. Eventually, players like Yardi and Rent Manager emerged, expanding software into accounting, compliance, and reporting. These weren’t flashy products, but they laid the foundation for real estate’s digital operations.
Then the internet changed everything, making room for PropTech 2.0.
Real Estate on the Web: PropTech 2.0 (Early 2000s–Mid 2010s)
Early PropTech was about unlocking information. CoStar and LoopNet brought listings and records online. ERP systems digitized workflows for leasing and operations. Tools like Building Engines and Workspeed tackled management tasks.
The next shift came when PropTech became consumer-facing. Zillow, Redfin, and Trulia opened listings and valuations to the public. Airbnb made homes into flexible, short-term assets. Real estate became searchable, comparable, and transactional for everyone.
Then came orchestration. Procore managed construction sites, not just reported on them. VTS actively managed lease funnels. Guesty became the backbone for short-term rental hosts. Buildots used AI to catch costly construction errors. Tools like Jones, Entrata, and HqO, and more automated workflows across leasing, compliance, and tenant experience.
The fundamental shift: PropTech stopped just showing us what was happening, and started enabling us to take action.
What Changed?
Venture capital. For years, PropTech was treated like a niche. Then investors woke up to the potential of the market. Dedicated funds emerged, and even generalist VCs began paying attention. Investment grew from under $1 billion in 2010 to $32 billion in 2021, before normalizing to high-single-digit billions. Early backers raised large vehicles to bridge traditional real estate with tech, and PropTech-focused funds followed – even here in Israel. The trend is clear: investors are finally hungry for real estate innovation. 
And that leads to one of the most interesting shifts unfolding right now: Real estate companies are acquiring startups.
A decade ago, the idea that a traditional real estate firm would acquire a software startup seemed almost laughable. Today, it’s expected. Seeing real estate companies invest in technology is no longer the exception.
When CBRE invested $100 million in VTS, it barely raised eyebrows – a sign of how normalized strategic tech investments had become in real estate. JLL launched JLL Spark to scout early-stage innovation. Silverstein created Silvertech to keep things in-house. Tishman Speyer has backed multiple startups. Related just announced Related Digital. At this point, it feels like you can’t be a serious real estate firm without being deep in the tech game.
What’s most interesting is how firms like JLL are approaching this shift: not just investing, but acquiring. JLL’s deals: Hank, Skyline AI, and Building Engines – make it clear, tech is no longer a side tool for real estate. It’s becoming part of the operating model. That mindset shift from “tech as real estate vendor” to “tech as real estate strategy” is what makes this moment different.
The Real Shift: People
Despite all the tools and all the money, real estate has been traditionally slower to adopt technology. Not because people are lazy, but because their job is to protect big assets – not test shiny software. A VP of Operations once told me at BOMA that you can’t A/B test a $2 billion development.
And it’s not just the stakes. Most decision makers in this industry came up at a different time. Email was already a stretch. Spreadsheets just work. Most portfolios were built long before cloud platforms existed. But that generation is stepping back. And a new one is stepping in.
Operators today are more tech-native. In many firms, they’re the ones driving bottom-up adoption: requesting pilots, influencing procurement, and normalizing new workflows team by team. They don’t need to be convinced that software matters, they expect it. They don’t need to be told to bring their phone or open their laptop, they already have. They’re open to pilots. And they have the power to drive change from within.
This generational shift is already happening. And it’s going to define the next era of PropTech.
What’s Next (PropTech 3.0?)
We’re entering the AI-native phase. The last wave digitized tasks. The next wave will perform them. Think teams of specialized AI agents:
- One underwrites deals with live permitting data
- One handles tenant communications
- One manages building systems and flags anomalies
- One reads leases and feeds them into workflows
These aren’t theoretical. The building blocks are already here.
The concept of “digital-first buildings” may sound like cheap marketing, but it’s already taking shape. Sensors, automation, and analytics are already embedded into the bricks of new and old buildings. As AI agents plug into these systems, buildings will start to manage themselves. Not perfectly, and not without a human in the loop – but far more efficiently than they do today.
In speaking with founders, one told me bluntly: “Property management is theft.” While that’s clearly an exaggeration, it highlights a broader frustration in the market. Property management today is still expensive, manual, and repetitive. That’s why what’s coming isn’t just digitization, it’s orchestration: software agents coordinating tasks across systems.
As agents get smarter, platforms will consolidate. The current landscape is fragmented – one tool for access, another for leasing, another for maintenance. But AI thrives on context. The most powerful solutions will connect data across systems, not silo it. This trend is already seen across the market:
- MRI has already expressed the idea of folding its products into a single stack with Property Management X
- VTS is already positioning itself as a unified command center for commercial real estate
- Boomnow, an Israeli company, is taking the AI-first route, building an all-in-one hospitality OS powered by a suite of AI agents
The opportunity is massive. Real estate is the world’s largest asset class. We spend 90% of our time indoors. And yet, most space is still managed by workflows built for a world of cabinets and fax machines. Not AI agents.
The next generation of PropTech leaders won’t just digitize: they’ll deploy agent teams, automate full workflows, and rethink how space is operated. My bet? We haven’t even scratched the surface with PropTech unicorns, and the PropTech unicorns of the next decade will be AI-native from day one.
To make sense of the Israeli ecosystem, we’ve grouped Israel’s main Proptech companies based on the five core ways to create value in real estate – improving how buildings are: Bought, Built, Managed, Financed, or Experienced. Please note that this map isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather a representation of the market today.
If you’re building the next wave of PropTech – think big, think AI-native, and build for a world where every square foot is managed by intelligent systems, not spreadsheets. We’re always looking to meet bold founders reimagining real estate. Reach out at [email protected].
