Undoubtedly, technology is changing the way of living, playing and working as long as development in real estate. The greater availability of data can benefit property owners and developers and technology can be used in order to achieve sustainability goals such as reduction of energy consumption.
Technology has changed the way new generations grew up. It is wireless, invades all aspects of daily life and affects how people work, commute, live, shop and interact with others. So, real estate developers have to think how the quality of interactiveness will be remarkable. For example they have to take advantage of the wide use of social media, phones, tablets, in order to offer experiences to people coming into their buildings. They also have to refresh the content so it stays relevant. For example tech features in a hotel or a shopping center have a limited life and have to be replaced with newer, more useful.
Additionally, new generation tend to be less car-dependent, by using apps like Zipcar and Uber. Moreover they often use public transportation, because there are several apps to tell them if train is running late or not. These trends will reduce the number of people driving and parking and will free up a lot of land, which is about to attract real estate’s concern.
Additionally, modern aspects of technology should be adopted toward further greening of buildings in order to be energy-efficient. There is the example of The Seattle 2030 District which is a groundbreaking high-performance building district in downtown Seattle that aims to reduce environmental impacts of building construction and operations through education and collaboration across every sector of the built environment.More specifically commercial building owners are reducing their carbon emissions and the costs associated with heating and cooling their buildings. They are investing in research, both in hardware and software. Here comes Microsoft and Amazon as high tech companies financing several researches. Other issues real estate developers have to address are the air quality and the availability of water. All the above demand innovations in several fields, such as buildings, transportation and governance.
On the other hand 3-D printing and robotics will affect the way buildings are built. This is the next wave of the urban environment.
Many experts also believe that the Internet of Things (IoT) is considered to be a revolution in real estate sector.It is a network of everyday objects – from industrial machines to wearable devices- which enables these objects to collect and exchange data.It uses built-in sectors to gather data and take action on that data across the network. So a building can use sensors to automatically adjust heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting. Smart electric grids more efficiently connect renewable resources and improve system reliability. IoT devices can be used to monitor and control the mechanical, electrical and electronic systems used in various types of buildings (e.g., public and private, industrial, institutions, or residential). Home automation, like other building automation systems, are typically used to control lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, appliances, communication systems, entertainment and home security devices to improve convenience, comfort, energy efficiency, and security.
To take advantage of the aforementioned technology revolution, Arbitrage Real Estate believes that collaboration, coinvestment and synergies are required. This synergetic cooperation will involve everyone in real estate. From planners, designers and engineers to investors, developers and agents as well as government, businesses and entrepreneurs. Technology is coming to change how we think about real estate. It will alter the way we approach new developments and existing buildings. It will create opportunities for new players to enter the market and for entrepreneurs to thrive. Opportunities of a magnitude and scope difficult to project. It will not be seen as a surprise if the current status quo is going to be questioned.
Therefore, Arbitrage Real Estate believes that the assessment of how technology will affect real estate will help better the sector to address the challenges, prepare for the inevitable novelties and work in synergetic way to take advantage of the emerging value creation opportunities.