The UK PropTech Association (UKPA) has announced a new grant-funded partnership with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) Digital Planning programme, in a move aimed at driving economic growth, boosting productivity, and supporting the government’s AI strategy through the adoption of digital technologies in the built environment.
The partnership seeks to unlock the potential of the PropTech sector, particularly in areas such as planning system reform, town centre regeneration, and the delivery of new homes. It follows the recent publication of The Opportunity for PropTech: Leveraging technology for the UK’s built environment, a report commissioned by the MHCLG to support its Digital Planning Programme.
The report highlights the sector’s strong investment potential, forecasting growth of 19.7% by 2032, and outlines a range of measures to support innovation and scale-up. The newly announced partnership aims to convert many of these recommendations into tangible outcomes, aligning with the government’s ongoing efforts to reform planning and advance its AI Opportunities Action Plan.
Key focus areas of the partnership include:
- Enhanced collaboration: By facilitating regional events, strategic roundtables, and working groups, the initiative aims to build stronger connections between PropTech providers, the private sector, and public bodies to collectively address systemic challenges and drive digital innovation.
- Increased awareness: Through national roadshows and curated resources, the programme will raise awareness of PropTech solutions, spotlight successful implementations, and help overcome market barriers to encourage adoption across different regions and sectors.
- Policy recommendations: The partnership will aim to generate actionable policy proposals to guide government interventions, tackling regulatory and market challenges and supporting reforms in procurement, regulation, and adoption incentives.
- PropTech growth: With access to greater support and resources, it is hoped that PropTech firms will be better positioned to innovate, scale, and integrate into the UK property market, helping to cement the UK’s global leadership in the sector.
Sammy Pahal, managing director of the UK PropTech Association, emphasised the importance of the partnership in realising the sector’s full potential.
“The UK PropTech sector is rightly acknowledged to play a crucial role in driving growth, enhancing productivity, and delivering long-term benefits for the UK economy and society,” said Pahal. “However, there is an urgent need to coordinate efforts to realise the full potential of PropTech and support companies to scale.
“While the sector has demonstrated value and there has been an increase in willingness to adopt PropTech – with a potential spend of £600m in the public sector alone – in order for the full value to be realised, solutions need to be scaled at a faster pace and more widely adopted across both public and private sectors. This is why this grant funding partnership approach is so important.”
She added that the initiative will enable the sector to grow by “drawing on the association’s industry influence and diverse membership base to deliver key workstreams and better utilise the knowledge and experience they have to drive digital transformation and thus economic growth in the UK”.
