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Proptech (short for 鈥減roperty tech鈥�) companies especially like the city, as evidenced by a number of startups opting to move their headquarters there from other locales. This is in addition to the proptech companies who started operations in the area.

It appears that real estate-related companies aren鈥檛 the only ones choosing New York over the West Coast. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that found 鈥淣ew York ranked first in an index 30 global tech-heavy cities鈥� as analyzed by real estate brokerage Savills Plc. (San Francisco came in second and London third.)

That index cited New York鈥檚 strengths as its 鈥渧olume of venture capital cash, large pool of talent — both homegrown and people attracted to the city — and the opportunities that exist for them.鈥�

Indeed, , founder and executive director of , a nonprofit representing New York City technology companies and innovation-friendly policies, said that New York used to be considered more expensive of a place to do business than the Bay Area, but not anymore.

鈥淎t this point, it鈥檚 not more expensive than the West Coast and in fact, it might even be a little cheaper these days,鈥� she told 附近上门 News. 鈥淭he culture of New York is about attracting people who want to build big things and meaningful products that impact existing industries and society.鈥�

And proptech companies are a perfect example of that, Samuels said,

鈥淚f you鈥檙e a proptech company, you need technical expertise as well as expertise in the real estate sector,鈥� she told 附近上门 News. 鈥淪o you鈥檙e probably going to have better luck getting capital, expertise and potentially mentorship from the real estate sector in New York as all of those things are uniquely here.鈥�

On top of that, access to potential customers abound in the city, which is another big draw. And let’s not forget that New York is one of the nation’s largest, if not the largest, metropolitan real estate markets.

Who鈥檚 Who

Early-stage venture capital firm聽 provided us with a short list of companies in the space that have moved in recent years:

• Commercial leasing management platform (which merged with leasing and asset management platform from Seattle
• , which describes itself as a 鈥淶illow for office space鈥� from Texas
• (previously known as OnTarget), which aims to Increase productivity and safety on construction sites using IoT and AI,聽 from the Bay Area
• , which uses machine learning and AI聽 to provide personalized notifications for asset management, property management and engineering teams, from the Bay Area

The list does not include other proptech companies such as data platform and virtual open house startup which are based in the city. It also doesn鈥檛 include larger real estate-focused startups such as real estate brokerage and marketplace .

鈥淔or a long time, technical talent was incredibly difficult to come by here and for many years, there was more of it on the West Coast than the East Coast,鈥� Samuels said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 increasingly not the case anymore. Once you take that advantage off the table for the West Coast, it seems inevitable that companies building tech for the real estate space would want to be in New聽 York.鈥�

Startup Side

The aforementioned , a platform that aims to help companies find workspaces, moved to New York from Houston in 2013.

, the company鈥檚 co-founder and CEO and Columbia Business School graduate, said while Houston was strong in the biotech and healthcare tech arenas, it was simply 鈥渘ot a big real estate city.鈥�

New York City, he said, is 鈥渟econd to none鈥� from a real estate perspective.

鈥淪ilicon Valley is not the end all be all,鈥� he told 附近上门 news. 鈥淔rom an office point, New York is one of the most expensive commercial markets, if not the most, in the country with the largest number of square feet. Plus, a significant percentage of real estate decisions get made within 20 blocks of my office.鈥�

Things appear to be going well for SquareFoot, which has raised about $13 million over time. Wasserstrum said the 56-person company has 鈥渕ore than doubled revenue鈥� over the last 12 months.

鈥淢oving to NYC was the best decision for the company,鈥� he continued. 鈥淭he quality of talent here on the tech side and the depth of real estate expertise in the city has been invaluable.鈥�

, co-founder of , relocated his company to New York from San Francisco in 2017. The company uses artificial intelligence and IoT to help contractors have a 鈥渕ore data-driven approach to making decisions,鈥� and thus help improve construction productivity and safety.

After raising a seed round that MetaProp participated in, Shrestha said he realized New York City was just 鈥渁 better fit鈥� for the company鈥檚 headquarters.

鈥淭he accessibility to construction sites, and (thus) customers, is just one example of why,鈥� he told 附近上门 News. 鈥淲e can step out the door and have so many projects just around the corner for us.鈥�

The U.S. construction market alone is estimated at $1 trillion, he said, 鈥渁nd New York is the biggest hub for that.鈥�

While I鈥檓 sure there are other proptech or real estate-related companies that we鈥檝e missed in this go-around, what we鈥檙e seeing confirms that NYC is definitely emerging as a hotbed for these types of startups. There鈥檚 just something to be said for the Big Apple.

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