As time progressed, “Smart” devices became a part of everyone’s daily life. The word itself has slightly changed over the last 10 years in terms of its meaning as technologies are evolving in a way that helps us to maintain and manage our daily life. It became more common to meet someone with a smartphone than not, while TVs, watches, lighting systems and washing machines in our homes are all becoming connected to fulfill our needs. These real estate trends now are taking on a bigger target as we are seeing an emergence of “Smart Cities.” 

The global population is predicted to hit 9.7 billion by 2050 with 66% of them living in cities. A part of this vision are smart cities as areas that will be increasingly urbanised and full of technology, with autonomous vehicles, drones and robots already being introduced into today’s service structure. 

In addition, we will see smart energy, such as heating systems controlled using the phone, smart buildings, healthcare, transport, infrastructure, governance, technology and education. 

In terms of real estate trends, smart buildings will have the greatest implications for the industry. They will get more connected, have the potential to reduce energy use, decrease operating costs, and trigger preventative maintenance. Other than that, technologies such as utilizing sensors to track information such as light, motion, temperature, water flow and analysing data automatically to detect inefficiencies could a part of how buildings around us will function.