EDITOR’S COMMENT You may have embraced proptech and seized upon modern methods of construction, but are you ready for the far-reaching effects of consumer-driven disruption?
Call it the iPhone effect, where our product and user experience expectations are driven by the very best of our experiences. With heightened expectations we are now conditioned to expect that the products we buy don’t degrade but improve over time – like an app-enriched smartphone. Their design should be beautiful and functional. And usability should be instinctive, not instructed.
“Expectation overdrive” is how Henry Mason of consumer insight business Trendwatching described this new way of thinking to this week’s ULI conference.
And it is a shift that applies to the built environment every bit as much as it does to tech.
GetLiving gets it. The PRS company backed by Delancey, APG and Qatari Diar said this week it would drop security deposits for tenants. As well as its headline 1,439-flat East Village scheme at the former 2012 Athletes’ Village, E20, the business has a further 4,000 flats in its pipeline across the UK. As a result of this consumer-driven policy change, deposits of 3,000 existing residents totalling around £3m will be returned.
There will be checks and balances, of course: tenants will have to pass referencing or have a guarantor. But for chief executive Neil Young it is about responding to a shift in consumer expectations and removing a barrier to transactions. “Scrapping security deposits as a pre-requirement and returning deposits to current residents is yet another step we are taking to show we are firmly on the side of renters,” he said.
This is no isolated example.
There is no consumer force as synonymous with disruption as Uber. And now PRS developer Moda Living is working with the transport business best known for its taxis to rethink its offer.
The tie-up will see tenants of all of Moda developments offered up to £100 in monthly Uber credits if they give up their parking space. The developer will also include parking spaces and amenities for Uber drivers at each building, which will include a pick up and drop off point for residents. Rather than pay a rent for these facilities, Moda will receive the Uber credit for residents at a discount and can then use the surplus space available on site for alternative uses, including fitness rooms or communal spaces.
It is a brilliantly simple, forward-looking idea. There will be other examples too. Embrace them.
Good to see the RICS formally ban “double-dipping” for investment deals from the beginning of next year. It is an important, powerful signal to send to clients and to those who might seek to go beyond self-regulation. One note of caution: a fine of up to £2,000 per breach seems, well, a little on the low side.
Congratulations to the 55 companies who secured a berth on this year’s EG Awards shortlist. It’s a real who’s who (and what’s what and where’s where) of the real estate world in 2017. Shortlisted parties range from the very large to the very small, the established to the new, and familiar names to some that are sure to surprise.
More than 50 judges wrestled with a far, far longer list of entrants to select a cohort which had both a good story to tell and were able to tell it well.
Two categories remain open for entries: Rising Star and the Collaborators Award. To enter those – or to book a table at one of property’s more significant events (Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane, 19 September) go to www.egawardsevent.co.uk.
