What does this statement mean?  

As we move into the digital era, and strive to be digitized economies - our standards of living will change. Digital technologies will cause a shift to the real estate world.  Smart Living has now become the trend. 

How do we define ‘Smart Living’?  - the best definition we found is from a case study by the European Commission “Smart Living is a trend encompassing advancements that give people the opportunity to benefit from new ways of living. It involves original and innovative solutions aimed at making life more efficient, more controllable, economical, productive, integrated and sustainable.” 

Let’s check out some numbers - According to the European Commission: Global growth of residential construction is expected to be 5.6 per cent between 2010 and 2015, and 4.4 per cent between 2015 and 2020, with smart construction being a new and growing trend in the industry. 

With technology in the equation, we can achieve the above. In order for our homes and buildings to be sustainable - we need systems in place. 

With new technologies entering the market, developers will have to change too.  

With technological disruption, the real estate market has to be at the forefront and  understand how to utilize these digital technologies and smart solutions.  Customers are highly aware of their needs, and will demand smart facilities to be embedded in where they live.   

In addition, these digital tools can be leveraged by real estate developers to gain a competitive advantage. Residents demand customer experience; which is driving success in every industry, and real estate will have to embed that experience for the future.  

Let’s look at some of the trends for  smart living: 

• Predictive maintenance: We will have ‘predictive maintenance’. Our applications and technology will play a big role in showing us the damage points via artificial intelligence and other technological innovations. A futuristic image of tomorrow is us asking the house about its day. 
• Real time Tablets: Electricity consumption is made viewable in real-time through tablets for the guest and a back-end system for the management thereby promoting energy saving for the user 
• Smart Parking is a new area for, residential areas which would be able to send drivers real-time insights and information on where to park 
•  AI-powered virtual customer service agents and chatbots to speed up customer inquiries,  field questions and automate discussions with customers 
• House Building Robots:  Modern technology including robots is being used now, and is building high quality homes for our customers in a shorter time, and with more efficiency 
• Virtual Reality: VR models are the next big thing for planning! This helps builders and potential buyers to design their future homes, too 

What are some examples elsewhere within the real estate space? We found the case studies below quite interesting:  

Dwelo, is a leading provider of smart-technology solutions purpose-built for apartment owners, managers, and residents 

Commercial real estate firm JLL has partnered with Google to create a conversational AI assistant that helps employees locate and book spare desks, set up meetings with colleagues and more.  

The U.S. National Association of Realtors (NAR)’s venture capital arm Secondary Century Ventures has invested in blockchain-based real estate startup Propy; which utilizes Ethereum blockchain to stream home-buying 

In Beijing, Panasonic is working with Starwood Hotels and Resort Group on a project at the Westin Hotel Beijing Financial District where 47 'Green Room' guest rooms were fitted with Eco-POWER METERs and tablets to control lighting and appliances within the room.  

In conclusion, we will end it with an interesting fact - The Majority of Home Buyers Are Millennials! This group of home buyers will expect intelligent technology to embedded in their future homes.  We look forward to the dynamic changes happening in this space, and what initiatives will take place in the region.