eResearch| Voxtur Analytics Corp. (TSXV: VXTR | OTCQB: ILATF) is disrupting the real estate appraisals industry across North America.
Real estate appraisals are necessary for residential transactions and property tax assessments. Lenders, sellers, buyers, and representatives all want an independent and accurate assessment of the property’s value.
Voxtur closed a private placement on March 11 and raised C$35 million by selling 50 million shares, following a series of acquisitions and amalgamations over the past year, with the proceeds earmarked for future growth opportunities and debt repayment.
Originally announced on February 25, 2021, the private placement was priced at C$0.70 per share, a 45% discount compared to the C$1.28 trading price.
VXTR closed at C$1.13 on March 11, 2021 after trading as low as C$0.12 and is up over 600% in the last year.
U.S. Real Estate IT Market
The U.S. real estate IT market is projected to be worth over $12 billion in 2025, growing annually at 12.2%, according to Research and Markets.
As the shift from physical to digital-based records continues, IT is becoming a driving force in the change in the way real estate companies operate and communicate information between market participants.
The real estate technology space includes products such as smart contracts, cloud services to promote and market, and emerging AI technologies to value properties in real-time.
Part of a broader group, property technologies “Proptech” are increasingly popular, as real estate managers are looking at how to extract more utility or higher valuations from their real estate holdings.
The Canadian Real Estate Association forecasted over 550,00 home sales in 2021, but early numbers in January indicate a pace of almost 750,000 homes in 2021. Statista estimates 5.6 million sales in the U.S. in 2021. Booking fees on an increased number of transactions would mean significant revenue gains for Voxtur.
IMAGE 1: January Home Sales Indicate 2021 Could be a Big Year for Home Sales
Voxtur
Headquartered in London, Ontario, Voxtur was founded in 2000 and operated under iLOOKABOUT Corp. (TSXV: ILA | OTCQB: ILATF) until earlier this year when it closed the C$87.6 million acquisition of Voxtur Technologies and renamed the company Voxtur Analytics.
Voxtur offers real estate valuation services through proprietary technology. The company uses data analytics with a focus on property lending and property tax sectors.
Voxtur services enable lenders and tax collectors, like municipalities, to value properties accurately at lower costs and faster speeds than traditional methods.
The CEO, Gary Yeoman, has run Voxtur since 2017. He previously operated Altus Group (TSX: AIF) for seven years, growing its revenues from C$75 million to C$325 million.
In a recent interview, Gary Yeoman noted several of Voxtur’s key advantages Voxtur, such as decades of market experience, a synergistic breadth of services, and a relationship with the Bank of Montreal (TSX: BMO | NYSE: BMO).
Over the most recent quarter, ending September 30, 2020 but prior to the acquisition, Voxtur recorded C$4.9 million in revenue, up from C$4.8 million over the same period in 2019. However, Yeoman notes that Voxtur is well-positioned to grow its top and bottom line in 2021 as the acquisition booked revenue of C$30.5 million for the 9 months ending September 30, 2020.
Competitors
Other competitors operating in the Valuation Technologies and Property & Tax Data solutions space include Altus Group Limited (TSX:AIF), CoreLogic, Inc. (NYSE:CLGX) and Real Matters (TSX: REAL)
