In this brief viewpoint we consider how technology will disrupt the residential sector, right across the value chain, creating new business models and new partnerships.
The waves of change, particularly from digital technologies and platform models, that have ruptured banking, insurance, manufacturing, as well as earlier industries such as retail and the music industry, have so far had little impact on the real estate industry. As a result, it is not regarded as an especially innovative sector, with comparatively low R&D and labour productivity. The size of real estate markets hint at the potential for change and the resulting impact it could have, given the right combination of factors.
There are signs that some of the drivers needed to transform the industry are on the horizon, if not already here in a disjointed sense. Some 52 percent of ‘Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services’ already use digital technologies, if at times prosaically, while a further 22 percent of the industry is expected to be affected by digital disruption. At an all industry level, only 8 percent of CEOs believe their business model will survive the current levels of large-scale digital disruption.
