A European PropTech View with Thierry Vignal, Masteos

Welcome back to ‘A European PropTech View, by Dilan Omari-Clark’ our Q&A focused on European PropTech’s.

Our Q&A series is an opportunity for our European team, headed up by Dilan Omari-Clark to discuss all things PropTech, Start-ups, and Career with different founders from across the continent. Each week we will ask PropTech innovators burning questions and quiz them about their product, we hope you find it insightful and enjoy getting to know the founders as much as we have.

This week we have been in touch with Thierry Vignal, President at Masteos.

Masteos was created in 2019 to reinvent access to the property. The basic idea of ​​Masteos is to put the buyer – the real risk bearer – at the center of the real estate equation.

From finding a property to renting it, including works and furnishing, all via an app, Masteos wants to revolutionize the investor’s experience in rental real estate.

Rental investment is not just a financial reality. This is a sector that engages their environmental responsibility, by applying an ecological process on construction sites, and social, by respecting the housing conditions of tenants.

The property is precious.

How did you find yourself working in the PropTech sector?

I started my career in global law firms within the real estate practice in Hong Kong and Paris. I then switched to finance in London and went back to Paris to start investing in real estate for myself. Every step of the investment process was a nightmare, everything was medieval. That’s when the idea of launching a PropTech start-up (Masteos) took shape.

At what point did you realise there was a gap in the market, and you had the product for it?

I wanted to do a profitable rental investment. I went to the real estate agency at the corner of my street to ask them about the highest risk-adjusted yielding zones in France. They had no rental market data whatsoever and only proceeded to show me a few rental properties, on which they had a selling mandate within our district. 

Limited choice, limited area coverage, no data. No help beyond making me visit the buy-to-let property. What about the tax, loan brokerage, legal, notarial, renovation, furnishing, tenant placement, rental management, accounting? What about investing in another city? Would they help me on those steps considering the fees they’re charging? You bet they wouldn’t.

What are the challenges in PropTech for your company?

You have two words that make up “PropTech”. The “Tech” part isn’t easy, but it’s straight forward. The “Prop” part (= property) is about field operations. Properties are tangible assets, that are handled by real people on the ground. Tech is virtual, real estate is “real”. The main challenge in the PropTech industry is to connect those two foreign worlds together. Handling “bits” and “bricks”.

What are the long-term plans for Masteos?

Masteos aim to become the leader of the European rental investment market and fully digitize the investment process on a single app.

What advice would you give to someone looking to enter the PropTech industry?

Don’t under-estimate the complexity of the operational part. Proptech is not just about “tech”, it’s also about “prop”, which is the physical part of the business.

Future of PropTech, what do you think is going to be important this year?

Blockchain, shared/fragmented ownership, access to rental investment funding, cross-border rental investment banking, yield guarantee.