Habx, from young proptech to pioneering real estate

This article was written and published in French and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

How did Habx become the pioneer of personalization for building a property? What were the key moments in his story? The challenges it faces on a daily basis? And how does it manage its evolution prospects? Benjamin Delaux, its president-founder, has answers to all of these questions and more.

In France, nearly 400,000 homes were built in 2017. Yet, among those seeking to acquire property, 72% are afraid of not finding housing that meets their expectations, according to the statistics of the 17th edition of the observatory of real estate morale. Indeed, a strong demand is observed but the offer with the agencies remains standardized and is not necessarily adapted to the needs of the future owners.

In 2013, Benjamin Delaux and Édouard Lacoste on one side and Bastien Dolla on the other, "marks the beginning of the meeting between real estate and the new digital technologies, today at the heart of the Habx's identity," explains Benjamin Delaux, founding president of Habx. The first is the founder of  New Urban Functions (NFU), a service platform specializing in the assembly of real estate operations, the second was the general manager, while Bastien Dolla was a housing economics adviser to the Ministry of Housing. equality of territories and housing, before becoming deputy general manager of  Greater Paris Aménagement.

Habx reverses the classic course of a real estate transaction. It is a matter of involving the future buyer very early, by allowing him to model his future housing according to his needs, thus distinguishing itself from the offers already present on the market. Future owners no longer have to be content with the very uniform offer they are offered. Habx has opted for an online support that reverses the relationship between supply and demand through digital. The company aims to even imagine with its partners, in France and in the world, the 21^st century real estate, a real estate demand, according to the expression of the entrepreneur.

Customize by reducing costs is the goal

It took them three years to implement Localizer, a geographic recommendation algorithm, and Pricer, a financial estimation algorithm based on the needs expressed by customers. "The best moment of our history: the launch of our platform on January 12, 2017. It was a huge collective pride to see the first operational tool for the production of tailor-made plans based on the real needs of future owners," recalls Benjamin Delaux.

In addition to the design, Habx has also used digital to promote its offer to reduce the costs of designers. "Thanks to the optimizations allowed by our digital communication and marketing, this offer is generally less costly for the promoter than the use of traditional service providers," says Benjamin Delaux. A drop in costs passed on to  buyers: "  this allows to produce not only selected housing but also cheaper: the Habx approach increases the purchasing power of households and facilitates homeownership."

An already proven offer

The first project that saw the approach Habx be implementation began in March 2018. It concerns Edison Lite works in the 13^th arrondissement of Paris. Thanks to partnerships with construction players such as Nexity , Vinci , Aviva Investors and more than 70 developers, developers, real estate companies and local authorities, the young company is currently involved in 25 ongoing real estate transactions, representing approximately 1,000 housing units, and already 150 pending operations.

"We have also signed three partnership agreements with public development institutions, EPA Marne in Marne-la-Vallée, EPA Bordeaux-Euratlantique  in Bordeaux and Oppidea in Toulouse. Local elected appreciate the production of selected dwellings, affordable and sustainable, and inhabited mainly by homeowners in their joint," adds the entrepreneur.

This article was written and published in French and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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