Technology Will Fundamentally Change Multifamily
From IoT to solar energy and autonomous vehicles, technology promises to be a major disruptor in the way we live.
“I think the technologies being created today have the promise of fundamentally changing multifamily and making it far more of an experience,” Adler tells GlobeSt.com. “That notion of transition to experience has happened significantly in retail; it is happening in office; and I think it holds the promise of happening in multifamily. This has really played out with an aging population and with four big technologies: Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, solar energy and electric and autonomous vehicles.”
An aging population refers not to the age of the population, but rather to the fact that people will be working for longer and to an older age. As a result, the standard life milestones other generations celebrated, like marriage and children, will be spread out over a longer period of time. “Look at who will be occupying the class-A apartments today in the Downtown core,” says Adler. “There is a lot of talk about millennials, but in fact, it is baby boomers that are returning to the city center. That is the group that has been occupying the high-end assets and continue to do so. This stretching out of marrying later, having kids later and then working longer means that things that would have been compressed in past generations get extended. There is a continued vitality in the urban core and a movement to the suburbs.”
Internet of things and artificial intelligence are the major software changes that will impact multifamily living, particularly from management and operations. “IoT is already beginning to land a beachhead. Security cameras, motion sensors, HVAC monitors, premise security are already happening through an app, and that is filtering through the upper end and the mid-level, and I think that will continue to expand over the next decade,” adds Adler. “This is a big thing that will have an immediate cost reduction in maintenance as well as revenue lift. Once you have done the initial packages, there is far more that can be done to make the space more interactive.”
Artificial intelligence is a way to improve the management and the purchase of properties. “You can marry AI and Iot. If the AI gets good enough and IoT sensors get cheap enough, you can put all of that on a platform and then you have a robot. These things converge over time into robotics. At that point, you will have a digital assistant that is mobile, and that is not too far away.”
Energy production and autonomous vehicles, on the other hand, are more of changes in hardware, rather than changes in software. “As batteries get cheaper and solar panels get more powerful—and the tariffs have delayed us a couple of years—then the apartment complex becomes and energy production source. In seven to 10 years, I believe that landlords will become utility companies. They will sells utilities at a profit and for cheaper than utility companies can. It will be a win-win.”
Autonomous vehicles will also change the surrounding communities as well as individual properties. As a result of driverless vehicles, people will own fewer cars or no call at all. “Space will be freed up in dense locations and urban areas,” says Adler. “In the short term, it will disappoint but in the short term, it will not.”
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