In our latest Spotlight interview, we spoke with Mike Clark, Product Owner and Co-Founder of Survey Sphere. Mike talks about how he supports property valuations, his impact on the social housing sector and his involvement in driving sustainability initiatives. “Traditionally, real estate inspections have required inspectors to travel to the site, creating significant carbon emissions associated with travel.SurveySphere enables inspections to be done remotely without sacrificing accuracy or efficiency. By enabling implementation, we reduce these emissions by up to 66%. This not only reduces the environmental impact of travel, but also increases the frequency and consistency of property valuations.”
Q1- Please give us a brief overview of SurveySphere and what led you to develop the solution. 
SurveySphere is a remote real estate inspection platform born out of the need to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and sustainability of real estate inspections. Initially, the idea arose from concerns about the time and emissions associated with travel and the quality of assessments conducted using automated valuation models (AVMs). These concerns included a potential “house in the sand” scenario in the real estate market. We also recognized the need for a solution that would improve the quality and quantity of images related to a company's stock holdings. This is important for financial institutions to perform effective valuations. Furthermore, there were significant differences in the frequency of inspections between public housing and the private rental sector. As this concept evolved, it became clear that industries such as social housing, repair and maintenance, appraisal, commercial valuation, energy efficiency, and building management could all benefit from these principles, and many more sectors may follow. SurveySphere provides a scalable, AI-powered platform that meets these needs, delivering high-quality data and enabling frequent inspections while reducing carbon emissions.
Q2- How does Survey Sphere improve and support residential real estate valuations?
SurveySphere enhances residential real estate valuations by providing detailed, AI-powered solutions for properties that cannot be fully valued by automated valuation models (AVMs). AVM remains the fastest option for simple cases, but SurveySphere steps in when more detailed analysis is required. It is integrated with a wealth of additional data sources such as recent sales prices, flood risk assessments, and EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) data to give you a more complete picture of your property's condition. This comprehensive approach allows appraisers to make more accurate decisions, reduces risk for lenders, and improves the quality of appraisals. By eliminating the need for site visits, SurveySphere reduces your carbon footprint and increases efficiency, especially for properties outside of your AVM.
Q3- How does SurveySphere help the public housing market solve current challenges around stock conditions, moisture, mold and condensation?
The social housing sector faces significant challenges in maintaining accurate inventory status. Issues such as dampness, mold and condensation have become more urgent, especially in the wake of the Awab Act, which highlighted the serious health risks these issues pose to tenants. Nevertheless, visibility into the actual situation of social housing stock remains unclear. Consumer standards have been updated to suggest that housing providers need to understand their properties better, but these inventory assessments are still only carried out once every few years and private rental much less frequent than divisions.
This oversight gap makes it difficult to proactively address issues. Issues like moisture and mold often go undetected until they become serious, leading to costly repairs, legal issues, and most importantly, negative health effects for tenants. Current approaches are neither cost-effective nor efficient in maintaining housing stock to acceptable standards.
SurveySphere helps address these challenges by enabling more frequent and accurate inspections of public housing properties at a fraction of the cost. AI-driven technology gives housing providers real-time visibility into inventory status, allowing them to detect and address issues like moisture and mold early before they become serious. This not only helps housing associations comply with regulations, but also ensures a safer and healthier environment for tenants.
Q4- How does this solution support the real estate industry's sustainability efforts, especially resource management and decarbonization?
SurveySphere is playing a vital role in driving sustainability in the real estate industry by significantly reducing carbon emissions through remote property inspections. Traditionally, real estate inspections require inspectors to travel to the site, creating significant carbon emissions associated with that travel. SurveySphere reduces these emissions by up to 66% by allowing inspections to be conducted remotely without sacrificing accuracy or efficiency. This not only reduces the environmental impact of travel, but also increases the frequency and consistency of property valuations.
The shift to remote testing will have a significant impact on decarbonization efforts. SurveySphere can prevent approximately 94,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year by moving small to medium-sized inspections such as building management, private rentals, social housing and housing inspections from in-person to remote in the UK. By eliminating the need for travel for each remote inspection, approximately 7.5 kg of CO2 is saved, providing an immediate and scalable way to reduce emissions in the real estate sector.
In the long term, SurveySphere's ability to reduce travel emissions and improve operational efficiency across a variety of real estate-related industries will contribute to the decarbonization of the built environment. As organizations strive to achieve ambitious sustainability/ESG goals, SurveySphere provides practical and impactful solutions to reduce carbon emissions while maintaining high standards of property management and inspection. Masu.
Q5- What are your plans for the next 3-5 years and how do you think digital transformation will impact land and building surveying in the coming years?
Over the next 3-5 years, we will focus on expanding SurveySphere to the public. To create a lasting impact, it will need to be widely adopted across industries such as social housing, construction management and residential surveying. The more organizations use SurveySphere, the more it will revolutionize the way real estate inspections are performed. Partnerships play a key role in this growth. We are actively seeking technology partners who recognize the benefits of remote testing for their customers. This technology is not “commonplace”, it is very complex and I can guarantee you how difficult it is to get it right. That's why partnering with us is an instant win for organizations looking to leverage advanced remote inspection capabilities.
We also see great potential in the continued development of AI and computer vision. Over the next few years, as these technologies evolve, we will be able to extract even more valuable data from the images we capture. This provides a better understanding of real estate stock, allows for more accurate valuations, and improves overall real estate management. Digital transformation has also led to significant improvements in data quality, creating a comprehensive digital footprint of the housing stock and helping organizations make better proactive decisions, optimize maintenance, and meet sustainability goals. help you achieve.
Overall, this is an incredibly exciting industry and we're looking forward to seeing where it goes in the next few years.
