Satellite Imagery Application in the Real Estate Sector

In recent years, the world has witnessed a boom in civilian remote sensing spacecraft launches. There are now several hundred commercial and governmental satellites in orbit. Various sensors installed on them provide a wide range of spatial data. The Earth’s surface is observed in different spectral ranges — from optical to microwave. Almost live satellite view of the Earth’s surface is available to customers all over the world, regardless of cloudiness or time of day. This makes it possible to solve a wide range of tasks in the interests of many sectors, including real estate. Let’s see some satellite imagery application in the real estate sector.

The Benefits of Satellite Monitoring

The advantages of satellite view of the Earth include a high spatial resolution of the images obtained, which allows a detailed view of the main objects. And at the same time it is possible to observe huge territories, which is extremely difficult and very expensive in case of ground surveys. To get satellite imaging in real-time users can now use different online software developed for this very purpose and more.

Space monitoring ensures a high periodicity of data reception that is important for observation of ongoing processes on the territories — droughts, floods, consequences of man-made accidents, earthquakes, landslides, natural fires, soil erosion, etc. This is important for the operational solution of current tasks both on national or regional and local scale.

Analyzing Satellite Imagery For The Benefit of Property Sector

No major project in construction goes without a preparatory phase — a study. The analysis of the urban situation, the design site and its context is not the only, but an important part of the pre-project planning, and the responsibility for it often lies with the architect.  

How does the city function now? What was around the site before? How can a new project change the life of a place? Urban analysis is always a work with plans, maps and a lot of geodata: points of objects, lines of roads, polygons of buildings or districts. Each of these is location-specific and has attributes — descriptions of characteristics, such as building height and function or road category and pavement type.

How is all this data extracted from satellite images of Earth? The answer is artificial Intelligence, or more precisely — machine learning algorithms. Applied to a satellite picture, it is primarily used to see change that has occurred in a particular location over time. More so, the algorithms can identify small objects and features even on a large image. More importantly, such analysis occurs remotely, faster, and hence more effective than if it was performed from the ground.

When it comes to the real estate sector, AI powered satellite monitoring can:

• Identify existing sites on a global basis automatically
• Track how the property or its amenities have changed in time
• Identify important property assets: swimming pools, gardens, fences, etc
• Detect damage following natural or human-made disasters

Most up to date satellite images enable real estate businesses that focus on investments and loans to view features and amenities on secured properties with higher accuracy. And historical satellite pictures allow for correct estimation of changes that have occurred to the property and establish future trends accordingly.

Most importantly, satellite monitoring enables remote access to data, which means real estate businesses will not have to waste time and money to monitor large areas on-site. And the information and valuable insights retrieved from satellite data can also be delivered through notifications in case any changes have been detected regarding a development project.

Overall, the real estate sector can use the power of satellite monitoring on both macro and micro levels. On a macro level, industry representatives can track construction projects at the scale of a city, a state or even a continent. For example, it would allow real estate investors to gather unmatched insights about the economic development of the market and its changes over time. With this information, they could see whether there are any alternative signals that could be derived to acquire a competitive advantage when it comes to making a faster and more informed decision.

On a micro level, real estate professionals could use satellite imagery to track the progress of a single property development. Customers could be notified in time and with high accuracy on the start of the project, its progress and amenities that will make it more or less appealing in terms of investment.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash