Benn Dorrington, Industry Editor and Analyst
First published 13 Nov 2026, 3:30pm
Technology is reshaping almost every stage of the property journey for home buyers, sellers and renters, driven by the rise of artificial intelligence, data and automation.
The changes are making the property journey faster, more transparent and increasingly personalised, but also come with challenges.
Speaking on the sidelines of the PropTech Forum in Sydney on Friday, property and technology experts shared where tech was having the greatest impact on real estate.
Here are six ways technology is changing how you find your next home in 2026.
Buyers are no longer house hunting in the dark, with online data and AI tools breaking down the information gap that once worked against them.
Valuations, property histories and other data that were once hard to find are now readily available online, changing how people discover and assess homes.
Thoughtworks social scientist Nigel Dalton said technology had levelled the playing field for buyers when it came to discovering and accessing properties.
Home buyers and sellers have more data than ever on Australia's housing market. Picture: Getty
"When I bought my first house, access to information was very undemocratic, very asymmetric and really angled against the buyer," he said.
"It's still a slog and you're still going to look at 80 houses, but having that data now online is remarkable."
Mr Dalton said AI would build on that, citing the conversational search features on realestate.com.au for humanising a process that once required users to build complex Boolean searches and taking the friction out of the property search. Mr Dalton previously worked at REA Group.
For households, technology has opened up a seemingly endless supply of options, but all that choice comes with a catch.
Home hunters can now compare properties and markets near and far with a few taps on a screen, which can shape both what they want and what they believe is within reach.
Ray White economist Atom Go Tian said tech was showing people a lot more options.
"It shows people what they can have, but also what they don't have, which does exacerbate this whole affordability problem we're having now, because the comparisons are endless," he said.
"That can be a good and bad thing, because it can be a source of inspiration, but also a way to just focus on what's lacking."
Mr Tian said the opportunity for tech was to use it as a way for inspiration and growth, rather than a reminder of what buyers were missing out on.
Technology is making the selling process faster than ever, and in Australia much of that comes down to how much property data is now openly available.
Easy access to information such as suburb and city median house prices has given the proptech industry something to build on, and it means everyone involved in a sale is working from the same set of facts.
Mr Go Tian said tech was making things much faster for sellers.
"The biggest thing that I noticed here in Australia is the transparency of data, and tech capitalises on that," he said.
"Here you have a foundation of truth that allows things to build, so as a seller, that's a huge opportunity."
Mr Tian said this levelled the playing field, because everyone started from the same ground and there was a lot of access to how things worked.
Households will soon find it easier to spot homes that are cheaper to run and more comfortable to live in, as home energy efficiency features are standardised.
Property technology businesses are increasingly taking up the Proptech Energy Efficiency Features Standard to help consumers and real estate agents understand and compare home energy efficiency features.
Proptech Energy Efficiency Features Standard founder and project lead Cecille Weldon said buyers and renters who have been facing cost-of-living pressures had been asking for this visibility.
Solar panels and other home energy efficiency features are gaining in popularity in Australia. Picture: Getty
"It's empowering because it teaches them what features matter and it empowers better decision-making," she said.
"It's not just what the property has, but what the property can do for you."
Ms Weldon said the standard was an Australian first, with property portals and the technology behind real estate agents agreeing to use the same language so consumers could identify better homes.
It comes as home energy efficiency ratings gain traction in Australia, giving home buyers a quick snapshot of how much properties cost to run and reveal how much sellers have invested in efficiency upgrades.
Technology is changing how homes are built and financed, from faster planning approvals to new ways of judging who can borrow.
Slow planning processes and holding costs have long pushed up the cost of supply, but automation is starting to cut those delays.
Author and Zeroo Home Loans co-founder and chief growth officer Lucinda Hartley said technology was changing much of the way homes were built, with automation speeding up planning compliance.
Technology is changing how homes are built and financed. Picture: Getty
"Things that would take weeks or months are now hours or days, and I think there are huge opportunities there," she said.
"People trust your last three pay slips for a 30-year mortgage, but now there are tools that perhaps assess risk differently and allow you to lend to a wider pool of people."
Ms Hartley said AI could also help borrowers understand how they were tracking with their mortgage and pay it off more effectively, adding that the sector was "only at the tip of the iceberg".
Hybrid work is changing what buyers and renters need from their homes.
The pandemic led many to predict a fully remote workforce, but many employees now split their week between home and the office.
Ms Hartley said technology had made flexible work possible, but it had turned out to be hybrid rather than fully remote.
Hybrid work is changing what buyers and renters need from their homes. Picture: Getty
"Most people are required to come into the office one to three days a week, but a lot of people are working predominantly at home," she said.
"Your home is now your office as well … which means you need a larger house, which means you need to move further out, which means you're more likely to work at home because your commute is greater."
Ms Hartley said homes were not yet being designed as if they were offices, and that how homes physically respond to working from home had yet to catch up.
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