Editor’s comment: Should you find yourself in Rialto, California, book one of the weekly tours of Plant Prefab’s 62,000 sq ft facility for a closer look at the company’s housing manufacturing process. This week Amazon announced it was investing in the business.
With its Alexa Fund taking a stake in a company aiming to build homes faster and at lower cost than traditional methods, it is a huge statement of intent by the world’s largest and perhaps most dynamic company. Amazon has grown its offer in the smart-home space in recent years; clearly it plans to build them.
There is no shortage of firms shaking up housing delivery – in the UK alone Urban Splash, L&G and Pocket Living, and even Berkeley are well advanced. But Amazon’s move will make the sector sit up and take notice.
With Google offshoot Sidewalk Labs looking to create smart cities – a project under way in Toronto – genuinely smart homes and offices in smart cities are moving closer. How quickly can they be delivered and at what cost are key questions. But there is a more fundamental one for this sector: how big a role will the old real estate industry have in the new world?
Knight Frank may get ribbed for its old boys’ club image but, to its credit, it’s doing something radical about it. Change at the very top will take time in all organisations, but new head of commercial Stephen Clifton isn’t sitting passively by.
Clifton has set up eight feeder boards with a 50:50 male/female split. The average age of board members is 35 and all cities in which Knight Frank operates are represented. That and other commitments this week again show that the industry is welcomingly, belatedly taking diversity seriously.
CBRE has been staging a truly broad diversity week – topics covered run from gender and ethnicity to chakras, auras and crystals – and the subject loomed large at the launch of 2019’s Cycle to MIPIM. All those involved – Club Peloton, EG and sponsors Legal & General Investment Management, Knight Frank, HTA Design, Elliott Wood and Webb Yates – have committed to making this year’s event the most diverse yet. EG will focus on firms that put forward a diverse range of employees by gender and from all levels of their businesses.
We want to celebrate the ways in which the industry is embracing the future. Keep us informed.
Speaking of change, EG is moving to the City of London; 99 Bishopsgate, EC2, to be precise. Like the City itself, we’ve changed hugely in recent years. We’re both more digital but haven’t forgotten our roots. And we’re prepared to reinvent ourselves.
I make it our eighth London move in our 160-year history.
We started life on Fleet Street, before moving to St Bride Street. We then headed for Hatton Garden in 1907 until the Blitz forced us out. Museum Street followed in 1947 and Denmark Street a decade later. Centre Point’s development forced us out of there and to Wardour Street in 1966, where we stayed until moving to our current home on High Holborn in 2004. Along the way, of course, we have opened a Manchester office, where much of our research team and northern correspondent Karl Tomusk will continue to be based.
Our new chapter begins in May 2019. With Radius Data Exchange thriving, our magazine reach expanding and events programme growing, there are exciting times ahead for EG. Thanks for your support. We couldn’t have done it without you.
To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@egi.co.uk or tweet @DamianWild or @estatesgazette
