Fostering exchange within the real estate industry and certain solutions newly deployed at the Group’s properties
HONG KONG, Nov. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — ‘PropXTech’, the corporate innovation programme jointly launched by Sino Group (the ‘Group’) and Ping An Smart City (‘Ping An’) is designed to foster and develop promising technology companies and to offer innovative solutions for the real estate industry. To offer a platform for the 10 shortlisted start-up companies to present their proofs of concept and business expansion plans, the ‘PropXTech’ Showcase Day was co-organised by the co-chairs of the Hong Kong PropTech Alliance, Sino Group and Hongkong Land, which received enthusiastic support from real estate industry players and well-attended by representatives of over 15 real estate developers and industry partners.
Sino Group and Hongkong Land, the co-chairs of the Hong Kong Proptech Alliance, co-organised the ‘PropXTech’ Showcase Day. (From left) Mr Craig Beattie, Chief Financial Officer, Hongkong Land, Mr Robert Wong, Chief Executive, Hongkong Land, Mr David Ng, Group Associate Director, Sino Group, Mr Andrew Young, Associate Director (Innovation), Sino Group and Mr Philip Kong, Head of Operations of PropXTech
Selected from nearly 300 submissions from 42 countries and cities, the 10 finalists from Hong Kong and overseas demonstrated an abundance of innovative technologies spanning across smart living, sustainability, big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics applications. After going through the four-month ‘Acceleration Phase’, not only have the finalists received professional mentorship and support offered by Sino Group, Ping An Smart City and world-renowned veterans, they have also been given the opportunity to develop pilot and proof of concept projects in various real-world environments. Leveraging the ongoing collection of data and user feedback, the finalists were able to capture direct industry insights into product optimisation to cater for the markets in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.
Mr Andrew Young, Associate Director (Innovation) of Sino Group, and PropXTech Project Leader said, ‘Sino Group is pleased to partner with Ping An in launching the "PropXTech" Innovation Programme, which has been able to attract innovators from around the world. We are also grateful for the support of Hongkong Land in co-organising the Showcase Day for members of Hong Kong PropTech Alliance and providing the start-up companies with a platform to showcase their PropTech solutions. Moving forward, we look forward to collaborating with more industry peers and start-ups and to leveraging the Sino Inno Lab and Hong Kong PropTech Alliance as a platform for the exchange of PropTech solutions, application experience, and knowledge, with the aim of fostering the innovative development of the real estate industry and supporting Hong Kong’s growth into an international innovation and technology hub.’
Adopting PropTech for improving operational and management efficiency
Having passed through proof of concept and testing stages, solutions from some of the start-ups have already been applied to projects under the Group. With the successful completion of POC trials at the commercial site in Tung Tau, Yuen Long, the Group plans to apply the cutting-edge solution of US start-up, OpenSpace, to two other development projects coming on stream. Powered by artificial intelligence and cloud services, the solution enables automated 360° video jobsite capture and mapping for easy process tracking and efficient field management in real time from anywhere. Sino Suites, under the Group, also demonstrates another successful PropTech use case with the integration of the user-friendly AI-based chatbot, Handle, into its existing Customer Management System. With the AI solution, Sino Suites is empowered with data technology to offer real-time responses around-the-clock for a better customer experience.
