Confidence in the proptech market has surged back at the start of the year. After a lull from the start of the pandemic, both capital investors and start-ups are reporting a renewed confidence in the market, according to the newly released Global Proptech Confidence Survey from MetaProp. The survey shows that investor confidence is 9.2 out of 10, while start-up confidence is 7.7 out of 10, the highest level recorded to date.

The renewed confidence is largely due to accelerated technology adoption during the pandemic and high-profile tech transactions, including Airbnb's long awaited IPO, successful SPAC deals for Porch and Opendoor, the debut of a dozen new proptech-focused SPACs, and ThomaBravo's acquisition of Realpage and CoStar's acquisition of Homesnap, according to the report. On the start-up side, the accelerated tech adoption has created new opportunities for tech penetration in the market. This should lead to increased M&A and SPAC activity in the sector this year.

Indeed, the pandemic push is only beginning. In the MetaProp survey, 94% of investors claimed that COVID-19 will continue to accelerate the adoption of CRE technologies, up 5% from the mid-year survey, and 76% of respondents said that they expect to see increased acquisitions over the next 12 months, up from 63% at the mid-year survey. In addition, 59% of investors plan to increase investment in proptech companies this year, up significantly from 33% at the mid-year report. Thanks to this push, start-ups also expect to have an easier time raising venture capital this year, up to 39% from a historical low of 12% at the mid-year survey.