The first Colliers Hackathon brings artificial intelligence in the local real estate market

The real estate consultancy company Colliers International Romania organized, between November 30 and December 1, the first Colliers Hackathon, a programming marathon dedicated to the company’s Banking Products division, the leader in the periodic evaluation of residential portfolios, in accordance with the requirements of the National Bank of Romania.

The Hackathon took place between November 30^th and December 1^st, at the Colliers Romania headquarters. The participating teams comprised of IT and tech students, freelancers and programmers with over 5 years of experience. For 24 hours, the participants worked, learned, cooperated, socialized and, in the end, competed for a firm collaboration agreement with Colliers.

The main challenges of the Hackathon were the implementation of artificial intelligence for the company’s internal processes and large databases work automation.

Throughout the event, the participants were assisted by a team of business mentors, who helped them understand as much as possible the specifics of the residential market in Romania. The technical differentiation of the presented solutions was ensured by Alexandru Păsărică, having a PhD in Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications and Information Technologies, and Cristian Badea, co-founder of Sypher, GeCAD and Avangate.

„As leaders in the field of residential valuations in Romania, we aim to find digital solutions that can truly change the dynamics of the local real estate industry. We want to be promoters of the entrepreneurial spirit and we want talented people to stay in Romania and develop apps and services that can compete globally”, Gabriel Blanita, Senior Associate Valuation and Advisory Services at Colliers, said.

Spoonful and FruFru&Urban Monkey contributed to the success of this first edition, providing participants with the culinary experience, hydration and energy needed for a 24-hour programming marathon.

„It is estimated that the real estate industry is in the top 3 industries that will be structurally disrupted by technology in the coming years, and Romania can benefit greatly from this change. Almost 100,000 employees work in IT and produce 6% of GDP, and both the number and quality of students in the field make us believe that more is possible. We saw a very talented IT community, able to come up with the right ideas for the challenge raised by our team. We want to continue working with this community to turn what was impossible yesterday into something that will be normal tomorrow”, Gabriel Blanita concluded.

The first Colliers Hackathon marks the beginning of an events series next year that aim to connect real estate with the Romanian IT developers’ community to increase the level of innovation and technology on the market.

Colliers International Romania is the leader in the residential valuation market. Over the last 3 years, the team has evaluated over 250,000 residential properties, worth over EUR 11 billion.