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Role in servicing the silicon revolution

London’s computer crash points to the upside of IT for property, writes Michael Brett

What was – at least until early April – one of the world’s major stock exchanges found itself unable to trade for most of a day when its computers went down recently.

It would be unfair to crow over the London Stock Exchange’s discomfiture. How many of us who work on computers have not been informed at some point that we’ve been performing illegal operations, or seen an hour’s work disappear into that great silicon graveyard in the sky?

And this is why I think the property world has got the information technology revolution wrong. Far from being a threat to bricks and mortar, it could prove to be one of the greatest boosts to the property industry for many a year.

You’ve doubtless heard the same words of gloom as I have. Most people will work from home, so there will be little demand for offices. Most people will shop over the internet, so there will be little demand for retail premises. And so on. Stuff and nonsense. Certainly, the uses to which buildings are put will change. But overall, the demand will explode.

To illustrate the point, let us take a town – any British town – in 2020. For the sake of argument, call it Tonbridge in Kent. Wander through the streets at dusk on an autumn evening, and from every room of every house you will see the blue flicker of a cathode ray tube.

Downloading porn

On the upper floors, the pubescent offspring are downloading porn from the internet. In the living-room, Dad is linked into the same system, searching the world wide web for the best offer on virtual reality fishing rods while calculating how long it will take him in the morning to download the month’s sales data from head office.

Mum is in the kitchen, feeding her weekly grocery order through to Asbury’s and flicking over every now and again to the Tescway site for a quick price comparison.

Less visually intrusive, the electronic heart of the house throbs. Computer chips fine-tune the central heating, draw the curtains as night approaches, run a bath for the youngest member and calculate defrost and cooking times for the evening meal that waits in the microwave.

A cat-flap opens automatically to allow the family moggie out for a prowl, and closes to bar a stray with the wrong retinal signature. Silicon rules supreme.

Believe this and you’ll believe anything.

In practice, Dad’s search for a fishing rod has come up for the 14th time with nothing more than an offer of a lavishly illustrated book on fishing for cod. And a message from head office says the systems are down again and he’ll have to come in tomorrow. The Asbury’s computer has lost Mum’s grocery order for the third time, Junior narrowly avoided a scalding when the bath filled with near-boiling water, and there’s black smoke seeping round the door of the microwave. The moggie is howling, half-in and half-out of the house – pinioned by a catflap that refuses to budge. Emergency calls have gone out from such of the five telephones and three radio links in the house that are operational – in practice, one.

Repair van at every third house

Elsewhere in the street, things are not so different. At no 47, the silicon-controlled curtains are opening and closing 10 times a minute, and every third house has a repair van outside. At no 55, a man with an electronic multimeter is informing the householder: “Looks like you’ve got a nasty case of baud leakage here. Have to have the floors up to get at the cabling. Cost you an arm and a leg.”

The town is ringed with electronic data centres, IT system distribution warehouses, electronic equipment repair factories and depots for the many emergency home and office call-out services. The old Asbury’s supermarket has converted to a virtual reality shopping experience centre, while actual groceries are supplied by a distribution depot a mile further out.

The local council profited mightily by selling half the country park at the town’s outskirts as the site for a new country walk simulation complex. Here, patrons may goggle from their seats at electronically generated ducklings at any season of the year.

Despite massive building, rents throughout the area are rocketing. And rumour has it that the Cyberbricks Corporation – which markets a range of securitised property investments to the public – plans a huge regional marketing centre within the town’s confines.

So don’t write off property because of the so-called silicon revolution. The Stock Exchange’s problems should remind us that the fun is only just beginning.

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