Building the Future: Andrés Leal’s Vision for a Tech-Driven Real Estate Market

“Why are we doing this the same way we have for the last 100 years?” This question haunted Andrés Leal during his early days as a civil engineer, watching crews lay bricks and raise buildings using methods that hadn’t changed in a century. Today, as one of Commercial Observer’s top 30 PropTech leaders worldwide and founder of a 33,000-strong real estate technology community in Latin America, Leal has turned that frustration into a revolution.

The Birth of a Movement

Leal’s journey from construction sites to the cutting edge of property technology began with a simple observation: the real estate industry was stuck in the past. In 2014, he launched his first startup, a Netflix-style platform for exploring new developments. The response? “We don’t need technology. We sell old school,” developers told him.

But rather than accept defeat, this resistance only fueled Leal’s determination. A pivotal moment came in 2017 when he discovered a LinkedIn article by Professor Andrew Baum of the Oxford Real Estate Initiative about the emerging PropTech sector. The article opened Leal’s eyes to the growing PropTech movements in the UK, Asia, Europe, and the United States. “If there are startups in these markets, maybe in Latin America there should be too,” Leal recalled thinking, recognizing an opportunity to pioneer the movement in his region.

Building an Ecosystem

That realization sparked the creation of Latin America’s first PropTech community. What started as a local Colombian initiative quickly gained international attention. Remarkably, within just six months of launching the community in 2019, Leal found himself in New York, competing against established PropTech ecosystems from the UK, Holland, and Japan. Despite having only 2,000 members at the time, the young Latin American community was already making waves on the global stage.

“When I came up from Colombia, people in New York were saying, ‘Oh, there are startups in Colombia, Latin America?’ I said, ‘Yes, there are startups in construction and real estate,'” Leal recounts. This recognition helped attract venture capital attention to the region’s emerging PropTech scene.

The Education Imperative

Today, Leal’s focus has shifted to what he sees as the key to industry transformation: education. “60% of your workforce needs training in the next five years,” he warns. “If you don’t give your people new skills – both hard skills and soft skills – technology is going to give a big punch to your company, your customers, your clients, and your stakeholders very fast.

Market Trends and Opportunities

The Latin American PropTech landscape is evolving rapidly. Affordable housing remains one of the biggest challenges, with startups adapting iBuyer business models to local markets while learning from U.S. companies’ experiences. In the rental sector, which comprises 30-40% of the market in countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, there’s growing demand for property management technology. Meanwhile, construction companies are increasingly adopting drones and data analytics, while e-commerce growth is driving innovation in retail and logistics technology.

Looking Ahead

With a community of 33,000 industry professionals across Latin America, Leal’s influence continues to grow. He has expanded his focus to the U.S. Hispanic market, where he sees a massive opportunity to provide financial education and real estate investment guidance to a community that represents 20% of the U.S. population – over 65 million people, many of whom are running their own businesses.

“We believe that this next generation of investors needs to understand the basics to create wealth in the next 20-30 years,” Leal explains. His vision extends beyond just implementing technology – it’s about transforming how the industry thinks about innovation.

“Even when we are living in the new era of technology with AI,” he reflects, “it’s not just about the technology. It’s about how we see technology. When we understand these basic concepts, we can create huge opportunities and develop new tools, not just for us, but for consumers in the streets.”

As Latin America’s real estate industry continues its digital transformation, Leal’s early question about why things haven’t changed in 100 years is finally getting its answer. Through education, community building, and technological innovation, he’s helping write the next chapter in the region’s real estate story.