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As part of the awarding of the National Housing Prize carried out last September 25, 2018, where for the second time Quiero Casa was awarded for its development “Paseo 136,” the real estate firm convened experts in sustainability, finances, technology, and the real estate market to talk about the challenges, ever greater, that the city and its inhabitants confront, which may be resolved if there is teamwork with the sector and taking advantage of the innovations that allow for improving citizens’ quality of life.

Housing is one of the great challenges that the country has. According to data from CONAVI and the Federal Mortgage Corporation, in Mexico City alone there is a deficit of close to 25,000 houses each year, indicated Carlos Riva Palacio, Business Director of Quiero Casa, who pointed out that the real estate firm has a strong commitment to offer the housing that is most needed at competitive prices and that meets the 4 parameters that govern real estate gains: location, accessibility, services, and development plans, with which Mexican families can be supported to live closer to their work, in a dignified place, in modern, safe, and sustainable buildings that are integrated to the urban context of each neighborhood.

Experts agreed that technology will change the way of doing marketing for the real estate sector, since people always seek more innovations to enrich their purchase process. In this sense, Mateo Turanzas, Director of Technology at Sidehouse, commented that through the project Evolución Digital 360°, the first virtual apartment in Mexico developed by the company Quiero Casa, gives a response to this need of clients strengthening the purchase experience through technology that allows for seeing the buildings offered by the real estate firm with virtual tours and 3-D models.

The way to look for an apartment is also changing, real estate search engines are taking on more and more relevance when identifying housing. Carlos Alatorre, CEO of Nocnok, indicated that in Mexico an average of 180,000 people each month look to purchase or rent housing online. “In Mexico, Internet searches are even parameterized, that is, determined according to the number of square meters, rooms, services, amenities, among others. Nonetheless, we see a trend that is a very strong and it is the crossing of data with each person’s consumption habits and preferences, which come from social networks, Waze, Google, among others, everything adds up to make the housing search process something more personalized and enriching,” he commented.

Alatorre also said that there are so-called emotional and rational purchasers; the former are those who begin by identifying the building at that they like and then find the way to finance it. The latter begin with their financial prequalification to then begin the search based on their real range. He explained that currently in Mexico, 60% of consumers are emotional, but at the global level, the trend grows toward rational consumption, in large part, thanks to financial tools that are more and more within people’s reach.

He indicated that in the mortgage and financial sector there is also significant evolution through digital real estate windows for credit prequalification, which are being rapidly adopted principally by millennial women, being that 62% of the requests come from this sector of the population.

On the other hand, Manuel Ahumada, National Sales Director of Enlight, indicated that in the energy sector there is also a great opportunity to adapt technology and solutions to reduce the expense and improve the environment by using alternative energy, as is the case with solar, by using solar panels.

The Enlight executive commented that in recent years, Mexico has begun to use efficient renewable energy by installing solar panels on the roofs of various housing complexes and the next step will be installing panels on the large tracts to be able to provide this type of energy to many more people. He mentioned that they are convinced that using clean energy is paramount for the development of countries and contributes to preserving the environment, therefore, adopting this technology will benefit not only Mexicans today, but those tomorrow.

Understanding the trends that are providing real estate solutions around the world will contribute to resolving the ever greater challenges that the city and its inhabitants confront.