Real Estate Information Platform

Belgium
|
Flanders
Published by: Digital Flanders
Published at 20/03/2023 Last update 13/04/2023
vip
0.0
Description of solution

The Real Estate Information Platform will become a digital portal where the applicant can request the necessary information in the context of a sale or long-term rental in one simple way. The platform collects all data form the available, connected sources (central registers & municipalities). The municipality then receives a request for quality control via the platform, after which the information is delivered to the applicant (via PDF or directly in the digital system of the notary). Payment and invoicing are done easily bythe platform.

 

Tactical Objectives

  • One channel for efficient information sharing between governments, real estate agents, notaries and citizens  
  • Once only principle – real estate information is requested only once to create more efficiency; minimize manual interventions through usage of OSLO (Open Standers for Linking Organisations), qualitative links with Flemish registers (address, buildings, etc.) and Flemish base maps  
  • Structured data – enhance data quality and interoperability to accelerate real estate settlements 
  • Reusable data – make sure the data is reusable by using one channel for receiving and answering requests  
  • Transparency - Increase transparency for citizens and give them more control over their data 

 

Methods

The platform offers the following functionalities:

  • Authentication & authorization – the ACM/IDM component is built in such a way that the platform can perform access control and the web services of the platform are secured  
  • Request process – the professional applicant can apply via the platform web service or the web portal using a capakey and building unit  
  • Process follow up – the platform creates the files; the status of the file is open to all parties and for municipal officers 
  • Automatic enrichment – the platform will try to automatically enrich the respective information per file by consulting the web service of the authentic sources 
  • Manual enrichment – a municipal officer can add, complete, modify and delete information; the RAAF model was implemented: some information is read-only, apply (only notify), adapt (all fields of information is customizable) or feed (customizable information, no central source that is prefilling information) 
  • Retry mechanism sources – the mechanism consults a source several times as long as the information needed has not yet been filled in by the municipal officer  
  • Approve or deny files – a municipal officer can approve a case (if all mandatory information is filled in) or refuse (if it concerns an unreasonable request) 
  • Consultation of a dossier – dossier information can be consulted via the platform web service and the web portal; a uniform PDF is made available per dossier; per dossier the source is mentioned 
  • Audit & legal logging – all legally required logging is provided 
  • Billing reporting – the platform makes the data available in such a way that the municipality can continue invoicing in the intermediate phase  
  • Cost price calculation & cost price consultation – with each request, the applicant is shown the cost price of how much municipal fee he/she must pay  
  • Notifications – status altrifications can send out notification 
  • Corrections flow – applicants can send files back with notes and questions; municipalities can update and revalidate a file   
  • Reporting error to source – errors in data of authentic sources are reported via the platform towards the source owner 
  • Request public domain – a request can be made based on a geometry (when there is no capakey) 
  • Payment component – the platform centralizes the payment flows and transfers the municipal funds

 

Functional requirements

The cocreation process of the real estate platform uses different working groups which are delivering business input for the platform. The platform has been developed by Digital Flanders. The functional, technical and legal requirements are determined together with primary stakeholders. The process of cocreation is supported by setting up various working groups. For the composition of the working groups, primary stakeholders were surveyed. A call was launched to all cities and municipalities to participate in the process in 2020. 

There are different types of working groups  

  • Semantic business working group - This OSLO working group focuses on making semantic agreements regarding real estate information. The result is a semantic model (information model, concepts). 

  • Business workgroup (functional) - In this working group it is determined what the information platform should do. This is driven by the users of the platform.  

  • Technical working group for the integrators – This working group discusses how certain functionalities will be presented. The functionalities must fit within the enterprise architecture of Digital Flanders. Not business but technical profiles look at the technical requirements and technical questions.  

  • Legal working group - In this working group, the decree obligations to support the realization of the information platform and the cooperation agreement are prepared. Legal questions or obstacles should also be analysed and discussed here. 

  • Focus group – The group is composed of the wider circle of those interested in the project but not the primary users of the platform. They receive updates about four times a year on the progress of the project. 

  • Pilot meetings - These meetings started in September 2021 for the representatives of the 30 selected pilot cities and municipalities. The preparation towards the launch of the platform for local governments is discussed. Matters that require further alignment of the applicants are checked off in the business working group.

 

Results and Impact assessment 

Today, the average time to fulfil all administrative costs is 12 days for all municipalities that are already connected. But of course, these are the municipalities that were very eager to connect and already give sufficient focus to the requested information. To measure future success, the project has set some goals.  

The goal is to have 30% of the information sections to have been handled within the day. The proportion of information sections dealt with within the day will increase annually until a maximum of 10% of information sections are not dealt with within the day. Information items are not processed within the day. This is because of files on which no information about exists or complex interpretations that require terrain research. Already 50% of information absolutely required in the business process is provided in a couple of minutes by the platform. 

In the beginning of 2023, already 39 of the 300 Flemish municipalities registered on the platform. There are 746 unique applicants and 5666 running files. It takes approximately 12 days to process one file. These numbers show that the platform is growing.

 

Dependencies and constraints  

The success of the platform depends on the number of participating actors. Furthermore, investments in the project are necessary to reach the above mentioned KPI’s.