immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Category: propTech

  • Properties are facing a round of financing

    Properties are facing a round of financing

    Almost a year ago, Levent Künzi, former COO of Betterhomes , and his brother Adrian Künzi founded the company properti . The two brothers want to change the real estate industry with the digital real estate broker, explains properti in a press release. The target group of the young company from the Zurich economic area are private owners of rental apartments. According to the announcement, they currently make up around half of all owners of around 4.5 million apartments across Switzerland.

    Propertyi works according to the motto manage centrally, mediate decentrally, is further explained in the communication. "We focus on the niche market of private owners and offer a comprehensive service for everything to do with the sale and rental of real estate," Levent Künzi is quoted there. At the same time, properti's processes are completely digitalized.

    After only ten months on the market, properti has already grown to 40 employees. You are currently looking after "over 300 active properties in German-speaking Switzerland and by then have already managed over 230 brokerages with a sales volume of around 40 million – despite Corona," says Levent Künzi. The two brothers want to carry out a first round of financing shortly. McMakler is named as a role model in the communication. The German company managed to collect 50 million euros and increase the company's value to 230 million euros.

  • The smart home is not about to make a breakthrough

    The smart home is not about to make a breakthrough

    According to a media release , the craftsmen's portal Ofri again asked 339 tenants and owners about networked appliances in the household. According to this, awareness and use of the intelligent home in Switzerland have increased slightly compared to the previous year. Instead of two, three out of ten participants now use a so-called smart home device at home. A total of 69.3 percent and thus 12.3 percent more people said they had heard of it. Homeowners are on average more affectionate to these devices than tenants.

    However, only 10.5 percent of them expressed their intention to buy a smart home device in the next twelve months. The main obstacles given by the participants were the rental accommodation, the renovation costs and the lack of benefits. From this, Ofri concludes that despite increased awareness, smart home manufacturers cannot expect a breakthrough anytime soon. The lockdown did not increase the usage rate either, said Corina Burri from Ofri. "There was no increase in smart home device ownership after March 16, 2020."

    There was no change in the most popular smart home devices compared to the previous year. Most of the respondents use networked lighting systems, music systems and televisions. Dishwashers, smoke detectors, ovens and washing machines are rarely used.

  • Innovation in concrete can make buildings leaner

    Innovation in concrete can make buildings leaner

    A team of researchers from the Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt ( Empa ) has developed a new technology. This enables concrete to be produced and used more sustainably. For this purpose, the materials used in the manufacture of self-prestressed concrete elements are reduced.

    With conventional prestressing, steel tendons are usually anchored on both sides of the concrete element, put under tension and then removed again. Because the steel is susceptible to rust, “the concrete layer around the prestressing steel must have a certain minimum thickness”, according to Empa in a press release . Researchers have therefore been working on replacing steel with carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) since the 1990s. However, this process is very expensive and also significantly more complicated than the prestressing process with steel.

    Empa has now completely solved these problems. Thanks to her method, she can dispense with anchoring on the sides of the element. Instead, its recipe enables the concrete to expand as it cures. "As a result of this expansion, the concrete puts the CFRP rods inside under tension and thereby automatically pretensions them."

    "Our technology opens up completely new possibilities in lightweight construction," said Mateusz Wyrzykowski, who heads the Empa team together with Giovanni Terrasi and Pietro Lura. "Not only can we build more stable, but we also need considerably less material."

    The team recently received patents in Europe and the United States for its technology. It is now developing new applications together with industrial partner BASF.