A single click on the screen of a mobile phone is enough to book a stay in a home or apartment on the other side of the world. New ways of living come as a result of a process in which the pandemic has been a great catalyst and technology has served as a bridge. “Apps and platforms transcend the transaction of renting a home, as they satisfy other needs around living,” he says. Adelaida Parra, Director of Markets and Segments at SURA.
“These tools not only allow you to choose a place to stay, live or rent; they also allow you to identify areas, places of housing, types of housing, recognize the place through images, and some even solve the financing part,” says Parra. According to the SURA specialist, this great combo is intertwined with new life trends such as, for example, digital nomads.
In line with this idea, Victoria Avenatti, Founder of ABC of Travel, highlights that the new modality of the home office She has greatly encouraged trips that combine work with pleasure. “What many millennials are doing is staying maybe one, two or three months in a destination and exploring it, but not just from a tourist perspective but as if they were a native of the area,” explains the travel expert.
“All of this allows you to get to know a city while still generating income,” says Avenatti, who stresses that one of the most used apps to create these rental experiences is AirbnbHowever, it is not the only one that offers the international market. Among some with similar services, the following stand out: Booking, Couchsurfing, Flipkey, HomeAway and HomeStay.
“People today rent a room in an apartment for a while and then move on to another destination to do the same thing. They tend to be digital nomads who work a lot in the social media, on social media, photographers, designers or people linked to the world of tourism, who work to promote different destinations," Avenatti explains.
Offices are also transformed
In addition to the trips and new possibilities offered by the teleworking, offices also innovate in line with new trends. Martín Haiek is CEO of Around, a technology platform that converts vacant properties into fully serviced office spaces with no exposure to fixed rents.
“What we do is connect with owners who have empty properties – mainly offices – we help them meet a quality standard, we take photographs and publish them on the platform. Then, companies enter our marketplace, search by location and rent those offices under a Netflix-style monthly subscription,” explains Haiek about Around’s business.
What does a company do to hire the service? The company only needs to enter their credit card and they are charged on the first day of each month for the next thirty days. “They can cancel the service at any time and there is no deposit,” says Around’s CEO.
Companies usually rent spaces for more than thirty days. More than 60% - Haiek clarifies - stay at least twelve months.The majority of contracting plans are monthly and, in some cases, in installments: subscriptions between six and twelve months," he adds.
Currently, Around operates in CDMX and also in some locations of Guadalajara y MonterreyThe next step for the startup is to grow throughout the region: “The first international city we will be expanding to will be Brazil and from there to the main cities of Latin America: Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, Lima, Bogota, Buenos Aires, among other".
Management is digitalized (and simplified)
Renting is a proptech that Digitizes the entire experience of rent a property and manage it. Victoria Simón, founder and CMO of the platform with presence in Argentina and Colombia, says that the company was created after observing that rental and rental management were very manual and in-person procedures. “What we typified was each of the processes that existed in the rental instances and we thought of a digital solution so that it could be done online,” she describes.
“Thanks to the technology we provide, and a layer of financial services associated with rentals, such as payment management, loans, rent advances, etc., it allows for a digital experience for both the owner and the tenant. And also for the real estate agency or the person who manages these properties,” explains Simón.
The Renting Model It consists of simplifying the rental experience for everyone involved in the transaction and throughout the entire process. The platform also provides digital channels to report breakages or problems that arise in the property where the person is living.
“This means that you don’t have to go in person to bring evidence or call someone on the phone to request a settlement. Everything can be managed through the platform and there is traceability of each case so that they can be resolved and all parties involved can see that this is happening,” he explains.
Furthermore, Simón continues, “so that a tenant can pay rent in the way that best suits them, we are thinking of incorporating solutions that allow them to pay by transfer, by bank or by physical points, such as a supermarket checkout.”
In the case of properties that are furnished, inventories can be recorded digitally and both the owner and the tenant give their consent to these inventories so that, when returning the property, this inventory is compared and a much more transparent delivery of the property can be created.
“Now in Colombia we are launching a loan product for tenants, so that everything you have to pay when you move into a property is not a headache and you can finance yourself thanks to this line of credit,” says the CMO.
A paradigm shift
Adelaida Parra believes that economic, social and technological transformations modify the way in which some basic needs are met, such as live. And there are already examples in the region that attest to this transformation.In Mexico City we have found that coliving is becoming established as a trend”, precise.
The SURA representative describes these spaces as facilities that have coworking spaces and where people also stay for a medium-term period - six months or a year - to replace work or study.
From SURA Insurance They consider it important to support people in consolidating these new trends that shape the way of living, considered as a well-being that must be cared for and promoted. With this objective, work is being done to identify new lifestyles, forms and needs.