Five megatrends are set to impact on the real estate industry and shape the built environment in the years to come, according to research by ULI Europe.
Five megatrends are set to impact on the real estate industry and shape the built environment in the years to come, according to research by ULI Europe.
Presenting the research at the Provada fair in Amsterdam on Wednesday, ULI Europe CEO Lisette van Doorn listed rapid urbanisation; demographics; technological breakthroughs; the shift in economic power; and climate change and resource scarcity as the key trends affecting real estate markets around the world.
Van Doorn said that Europe would have to deal with what she described as the ‘great urbanisation wave’ in a different way to emerging markets where growth is strongest. ‘Most of our cities are very old so the challenge for Europe will be how to integrate the infrastructure to accommodate growth in people and businesses.’
At a time when more than half the world’s population lives in cities, urban planners would have to develop successful ‘density models’ to make urban areas more liveable and resilient while at the same time preventing the formation of ghettos for both the rich and poor, Van Doorn said.
She presented research by property group Grosvenor which found that three Canadian cities, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, are the most ‘resilient’ cities worldwide in terms of their ability to adapt to change. Amsterdam took 12th place in the ranking.
Technological breakthroughs would also continue to revolutionise the way people work and live, Van Doorn said. ‘The speed of technological change is really fast. It’s hard to believe that the I-Phone was introduced just seven years ago and now it has – at least for me - become an indispensable part of my life.’
Besides the growth of ecommerce, young tech firms are also springing up which are driving change in established business models. WeWork is one such company which is transforming how small businesses lease and occupy property. Just four years old, the company operates by leasing floors and then charging monthly memberships to start-ups and small companies.
Van Doorn stressed that harnessing new technology was in some cases just as important as the technology itself. ‘Take toll road systems in the Netherlands. The government has been talking about introducing them for years but they still haven’t been implemented because the political will isn’t there.’
