The real estate agent profession in Brazil dates back to the colonial period. Many landowners wanted to purchase properties in cities, and the high demand gave rise to real estate intermediaries — the brokers.
These brokers organized themselves, gained greater relevance, and established the first real estate agencies as we know them today — focused on the sale, purchase, and rental of properties.
However, 2020 may go down in history as the year the real estate market as we know it ceased to exist. Let me explain why.
The real estate transaction process, whatever its nature, is highly bureaucratic and almost always involves an intermediary between the parties. Simplifying it has always been a universal desire, but no significant movement ever pushed in that direction. Until 2012.
That was the year the startup QuintoAndar emerged, promising an innovative, technology-driven solution for renting properties — no bureaucracy, no guarantor, and completed within 48 hours.
The company quickly disrupted the market. A fast and secure solution for both property owners and tenants. Near-zero risk for both parties, with everything handled in a simple and straightforward way.
The result: seven years later, the company's market value exceeded one billion dollars. For comparison, Lopes — the country's largest real estate company, publicly traded on the stock exchange and founded in 1935 — is valued at 345 million dollars.
In addition to QuintoAndar, several other companies emerged in this market niche. But it was in 2018 that the sector witnessed a new evolutionary leap.
Loft, a company that purchases, renovates, and resells properties, reached a market value of one billion dollars in just 16 months from its founding.
In that brief period, it sold more than 1,000 apartments and acquired Decorati, a renovation specialist, becoming capable of renovating up to 500 properties simultaneously in preparation for resale.
Of Loft's entire workforce, approximately 40 percent are data analysts. In traditional real estate companies, those roles would be filled by sales agents.
Worth mentioning as well is Housi, a company working with on-demand housing, aligned with the global trend of access over ownership. The company offers short subscription plans with no contractual obligations and also provides services such as car sharing, among others.
The way properties are advertised is also changing. Grupo ZAP, one of the country's largest real estate listing platforms, distributed free pizzas to residents of various apartment buildings in São Paulo. On the pizza box was the message: "we want to buy your property."
Do you know how long it takes a property owner to sell an apartment in São Paulo? Sixteen months, on average. What companies like Loft and Grupo ZAP do, for instance, is dramatically reduce that timeline with cash purchases, providing liquidity to those who need to sell.
All of the companies mentioned here will be present at the ConstruTech Conference, the largest event on innovation in real estate and construction ever held in Latin America.
Will real estate agencies cease to exist? As we know them today, yes. In all likelihood, thousands of them will close or be absorbed by technology companies operating in the sector.
And what about real estate agents? Will the profession disappear? No — as long as professionals acquire new skills such as data analysis and artificial intelligence, for example.
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Technology and innovation bring more opportunities than threats. The most important thing, therefore, is to understand how they can enhance businesses and careers. From that point on, everyone stands to gain.
Text by Junior Borneli