Accurate valuations lead to a faster ‘yes’

For a long time, the slowest part of buying a home wasn’t finding it. It was the waiting: for a valuer to visit, for a report to land and for a lender to say yes. That wait is shrinking fast.

The 39 companies in the Valuation & Financial Solutions category of the 2026 Proptech Map, part of 572 companies on the map, sit at the exact point where a property’s worth meets the money to buy it.

On both sides of that line, AI is making the answers quicker and, more importantly, more accurate.

Valuers are working smarter, not less

A residential valuation once meant a qualified valuer driving to the address, walking through the rooms and signing a report. That model is changing quickly. Cotality found in a report released in April that digital assessments are fast becoming the dominant method for residential mortgage valuations in Australia.

Opteon, one of the country’s largest valuation firms, says around 15% of its residential mortgage instructions are now completed digitally.

The efficiency gain is real, but the bigger story is the evidence. A valuer can now draw on sales, listings, planning data, imagery and rents in one sitting, far more than any inspection reveals. Opteon managing director Scott Chapman told Australian Broker that valuers are spending more time “working across data sets, cross-referencing evidence” and applying their market expertise.

Much of that evidence comes from companies on this map. Cotality says its automated valuation model now covers more than 96% of Australian residential properties. Valocity digitises the way lenders order valuations and, through a partnership with the Australian Property Institute, gives the institute’s members access to real-time sales data, according to Valocity. PEXA took a 70% stake in Value Australia in 2022, according to PEXA’s annual report, commercialising AI valuation technology that began as a research collaboration led by UNSW Sydney. Value Australia says its tool produces a property valuation within seconds.

Around them sits a practical ecosystem. ValuePRO builds software for valuation firms, and Forbury does the same for commercial real estate professionals. Hovr says it automatically matches customers with expert valuers for desktop, certified, SMSF and estate reports, while Propti and Property Pricer package valuations with the other reports owners need, from depreciation schedules to capital gains valuations. Established firms Opteon and Acumentis anchor the professional end of the map.

None of this removes the valuer. The Australian Property Institute counts more than 5,000 professional valuers among its members, a small workforce for a market Cotality values at more than $11 trillion. Technology is what lets that workforce keep pace. Last 30 April, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority wrote to every bank, insurer and super fund warning that AI adoption had outrun AI governance, naming loan application processing as an area where AI is deployed at scale. The winners will be the platforms that can show their workings.

Finance is racing to a faster yes

If valuation is about a more accurate number, finance is about a faster yes. Cotality has said that in a market where lenders compete intensely for the same borrowers, speed of approval has become a primary point of difference, and the valuation has traditionally been one of the slowest steps.

Mortgage brokers sit at the centre of that race. The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia reported on 3 September that brokers wrote a record 81.6% of all new residential home loans in the June quarter, up from 53.9% in 2018. Aussie, which calls itself Australia’s number one mortgage brokerage, and Lendi, which says its technology scans more than 2,000 products from over 40 lenders, are the best-known digital players on the map.

Behind the scenes, Nimo Industries supplies lenders with a digital lending platform that automates the journey from customer acquisition to settlement.

AI is already moving the numbers. Aggregator LMG told Mortgage Professional Australia that approval times for its brokers fell 18% in July as more than 3,800 users adopted its AI assistants.

Much of the rest unlocks money that is stuck.

Deposit Power and Deposit Bond Australia replace cash deposits with bonds, and Deposit Power says it has been issuing them for more than 30 years.

Downsizer lets older buyers use the equity in their current home to secure an off-the-plan purchase without selling first. OwnHome offers low deposit home loans without lenders mortgage insurance. For those not ready to buy a whole home, BrickX says it sells fractions of properties from a minimum of $250, and Bricklet offers a path to ownership without a traditional deposit.

Agents and vendors have their own funding tools.

Campaign Agent, Campaign Flow, SaleFunder, ListReady and Realty Assist fund marketing, styling and preparation so vendors can pay at settlement rather than upfront. Brickfloor offers a home price guarantee before a campaign begins. For renters and businesses, RentPay and EasyBondpay spread the cost of rent and bonds, and eGuarantee and AvenueBank replace traditional bank guarantees with digital alternatives. AvenueBank says its guarantees are issued within 24 hours.

At the larger end, CrowdProperty and We Fund finance developers, Lendhaus helps borrowers choose and manage commercial property loans, Bridgit provides bridging finance, Quadrent specialises in asset leasing, and 325 Technology automates tax compliance for property funds.

Bottom line: Valuation and finance are joined at the hip. A better-evidenced valuation gives a lender the confidence to approve sooner, and a faster approval gives buyers and sellers the certainty to act. The companies on this map are removing the waiting, the guesswork and the upfront cash that have slowed Australian property transactions for decades. The ones that can show their workings and methodologies will set the standard.

Valuation & Financial Solutions is part of the staged release of the 2026 Proptech Map. Is your company missing from the map, or listed in the wrong category? We want to hear from you at members@proptechaustralia.com.au.

We are releasing each of the 14 category maps as a static slide, but Proptech Australia members get the full interactive Proptech Map online, where they can search, filter and explore all 572 companies across every category. For more information on becoming a member, go to https://www.proptechaustralia.com.au/signup. Or email our Member Specialist, Patricia Louise, at members@proptechaustralia.com.au.