The most dramatic career resurrection of the week? Not Boris, but Pikachu.
More on Pokémon in a moment. Because it’s time we turned away from the political distractions over which we have diminishing influence and embrace the changes we can control. Starting with tech.
We may have a new PM, a new chancellor and an eyebrow-raising appointment to foreign secretary. We can speculate about how this government’s priorities will shift. A weakening of the Northern Powerhouse? Perhaps: Theresa May promises “a plan to help not one or even two of our great regional cities but every single one of them”. Further, faster infrastructure investment? There will be more Treasury-backed project bonds for new projects, she says. And housing? More emphasis on affordability is implied.
But with every unlikely turn of events, that’s a world that feels increasingly remote. It is vital that May seeks to reconnect “us” to “them” as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we are perhaps better off embracing the virtual world than Westminster’s.
The launch of Pokémon Go has been the week’s other big story. An augmented reality app, it overlays images of creatures – Pikachu is the star man, Pokémon’s Boris Johnson if you like – on to cities and towns around the globe. With creatures spotted from RICS’ Parliament Square HQ and Downing Street, SW1, to Edinburgh Castle, you simply catch as many Pokémon as you can. It is barely less plausible than real-world events of recent weeks and considerably more fun.
So what has this got to do with property? This melding of the real and the virtual worlds is already well-used in this industry to showcase new buildings and has driven the first major proptech deal of this cycle (p22). The Pokémon phenomenon shows it can go further: using virtual reality to lure potential customers into real-world stores is an obvious application.
Meanwhile, with London ranked the world’s second most important tech city in a recent survey by consultancy think2know – by some estimates, said the researchers, there may be more IT jobs in London than all of California – it is essential we demonstrate our willingness to embrace such innovations. Especially as a Tech City UK survey highlights fears that 74% of tech workers believe Brexit is going to make the UK economy worse, not better. London is buzzing with tech innovators – not least in the proptech space – it is vital that it stays that way.
And there is no reason why it shouldn’t: much of this is within our control. We are entering turbulent economic times – the Bank of England’s decision to hold interest rates on Thursday feels like a decision delayed, not averted – and it is essential that this industry seizes opportunity wherever it presents itself. Tech, VR and, yes, even Pokémon, offers just that opportunity.
Consider how far tech’s influence on property has come in the past two decades. Yes, it could and will go further, but its influence is accelerating. Take EGi, which launched precisely 20 years ago – only a year after Pikachu was born – and we hope you like our front cover (and tech section, p38) celebrating that significant birthday. Its usage is wider and deeper than ever before.
So what does the next 20 years promise? Well, a further melding of the virtual and the physical seems inevitable. So pay as close attention to small, yellow creatures as large blonde ones.
We will be tracking the changing nature of this sector in the latest Estates Gazette careers survey in association with Cobalt Recruitment. We will be looking at salaries but also at entrepreneurial attitudes, workplaces and what Brexit means for roles and remuneration. Do fill in the survey at www.bit.ly/EGsalarysurvey and help us paint an accurate picture of the current state of play in the UK’s fast-changing property sector.
