My guest in this episode is Nikki Greenberg, who runs the Real Estate of the Future consultancy in New York and is head of Women in PropTech globally. Nikki is an Australian by adoption and has expertise in advising big end of town developers on how to embrace technology and innovation. And in this interview, we talk about why there has never been a more important time to talk about innovation, and what life has been like in New York during the pandemic and during the Black Lives Matters protests. This is an interesting discussion about the unique skills that developers and the real estate industry have to visualise and plan for the future through our ability to manage big projects and build living environments from scratch. And Nikki’s challenge to the industry in these unprecedented times is to tap into the energy of the elements of the international cities that we love to bring innovation to our built environments.

(02:18): Nikki gives us the elevator pitch for Real Estate of the Future. (It’s super tight so listen for a great example of how to do it)

(02:53): How a South African studying in Australia got into property and became a proptech champion working in New York.

(08:11): Why New York is special for proptech

(16:44): What the real estate industry has learned from the upheaval of the Covid19pandemic and protests.

(21:52): Nikki gives us her take on how the ability for developers to visualise the future should apply to technology solutions as well as building solutions.

(26:46): What real estate should learn from the advertising and ecommerce industries.

(28:02): How our living places and workplaces are changing.

(31:08): Nikki gives us her view of the next five years in real estate and proptech.

(35:07): Nikki discusses Women in Proptech and its future.

(41:48): What real estate agents should be doing right now to be future ready.