Hazel Bedson, Marketing Director at Service Works Global, was featured in Facilitate Magazine to discuss the divide in PropTech adoption.
As many as 55% of property professionals reported never using PropTech tools, while nearly a third (29%) said they rely on them daily. This split reflects wider uncertainty over the role of technology in property and facilities management.
The data highlights a significant divide in how PropTech is being adopted and valued across the sector.
Commenting on the survey results, Gordon Mitchell, co-founder of Wholus and chair of the IWFM Technology SIG, told Facilitate: “The headline statistic isn’t simply about reluctance; it’s about relevance. Too often, PropTech tools are presented as innovations in isolation, rather than as part of the lifecycle of property/facility management.”
Hazel Bedson, a member of the IWFM Technology SIG and group marketing director at Service Works Global, found the statistic “surprising”, but offered advice on how to tackle this issue.
Bedson said: “There are multiple factors at play here. Firstly, the skills gap must be addressed; as a sector, if we are to reap the potential of PropTech, we must ensure that our people have the necessary digital and technical skills, by investing in training and through the support of professional industry bodies, otherwise the prospect of adopting new technology can feel overwhelming.
“Juggling multiple and often conflicting pressures is also a perennial challenge in the sector. From having to deliver improved services with less budget, to increasing ESG commitments, PropTech spend can fall down the priority list.”
Additional findings from the survey showed opinions on the importance of PropTech. These included:
- 48% said PropTech was not important to their day-to-day work;
- 25% considered it essential;
- 52% felt PropTech offered little or no ROI; and
- 19% reported strong returns.
“The survey shows that 52% doubt they deliver ROI and 48% see them as unimportant to daily operations,” Mitchell said. “That signals a mismatch: tools designed around features, not around the lived workflows of professionals.
“From a life cycle lens, this is the ‘fracture point’ – technology introduced without integration into existing systems, without addressing compliance pinch points, or without easing the real administrative burdens.
“In other words, adoption fails not because professionals are anti-innovation, but because the solutions aren’t aligned to their realities.”
Adoption issues
According to the survey, adoption appears to be concentrated in specific areas:
- compliance tasks (16%)
- marketing (14%)
- administration, such as scheduling and invoicing (13%)
- communication (13%)
Bedson said: “Without a clear vision of the projected ROI for PropTech investment, procurement often stalls at the first hurdle. Indeed, it’s often only when there is a legal or regulatory need – as highlighted by the survey findings, with compliance being the top area on which PropTech is relied upon – that adoption is successful.
However, almost half of those surveyed (48%) said current solutions fail to address the real challenges they face.
Integration issues remain a key barrier, with 23% reporting poor compatibility with existing CRM systems. Cost and return on investment were also identified as concerns by 22% of professionals, while 15% pointed to the need for better training and onboarding.
For Bedson, “Integration is key; no one wants to have to use a multitude of different systems in silo. We’re certainly seeing a trend towards an ‘ecosystem’ of digital tools, whereby information can flow between systems to provide one accurate data set and unified workflows.
“But to achieve this, it’s important that organisations firstly define their digital strategy – this will help ensure that PropTech initiatives align with business goals and deliver tangible benefits.”
Added to integration is ensuring reliable data, Bedson argued. “The old adage of ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ remains as true as ever, yet many organisations struggle to have a full and accurate picture of their property and asset portfolio.
“Without reliable data, PropTech cannot deliver the business insights it is designed to produce. This perhaps explains the perception reflected in the survey that PropTech does not deliver good value for money.
The findings suggest that unless PropTech tools integrate more effectively with established systems and demonstrate clearer financial benefits, adoption across the property and facilities management sector is likely to remain polarised.
Mitchell argued that for PropTech to move from an optional add-on to an essential infrastructure, “Providers must act less like vendors and more like strategic partners. That means designing right-to-left: beginning with long-term value outcomes (compliance, efficiency, ESG goals) and mapping backwards into daily tools.”
To increase adoption of PropTech, Mitchell reflected on three core pathways that stood out from the survey:
- Integration – ensuring PropTech sits within existing ecosystems, rather than asking professionals to duplicate effort.
- Evidence – building trust through proven ROI, transparent case studies, and measurable results.
- Adoption anthropology – supporting training and onboarding that respects community-level change, not just individual users.
“When frameworks are clear and adoption is human-centred, PropTech can become a driver of both operational efficiency and purpose-led value,” Mitchell added. “Done right, it shifts from ‘nice-to-have’ to the connective tissue of the built environment.”
