Out of This World Trends in CRE Technology

Imagine if we could speak to our properties like a science fiction movie. They would let us know where our security was lacking, which resources are in use, what’s smelling up the company refrigerator, etc. Sorry to break it to you but as great as the internet is, we cannot live inside of it! Smart building technology enhances care for our properties, occupants, and environment while lowering costs.

Why in our evolving society do we allow our built environments to remain obsolete? Perhaps it’s because we think too narrowly about how we may improve these buildings. It’s 2016 and time to think outside of the box because smart building technology is no longer a science fiction dream. Don’t believe me? Just watch.

Here are nine unusual trends seeing astronomical growth in commercial real estate.

1. Property Apps

Property managers cannot respond to a tenant’s needs 24 hours a day. However, technology partners and smart property apps can by reconstructing tenant handbooks and replacing manually written signs on the bathroom door. Digital tenant communication platforms like those powered by virtual reality services like ReaLync‘s are installing high-tech, live, and onsite property communications right into your smartphone. Mobile-responsive property websites and apps will emerge as a dominant force in both marketing and on-site tenant communication.

The digital face of commercial real estate will emerge this year.

2. Smart Art

You can’t be a Class A commercial real estate property if you do not have art in or outside of your building(s). Skyscrapers and fine art go together like peanut butter and jelly. But whose art will look old and decrepit five, ten or even fifty years down the line? Noelle Ocon knows. She is changing the way art is preserved inside of commercial offices. Ocon, the conservator of paintings at the North Carolina Museum of Art, has discovered game-changing X-Ray technologies for advanced art preservation.

3. Indoor Climate

Sitting is the new smoking. However, contracting a respiratory disease from the poor air quality inside your office is far more threatening to your productivity. Indoor climate is not to be confused with smart air conditioning or heating automation. All building management professionals are familiar with plug-load monitoring but what about pollution loads? Air pollution is a worldwide problem from Los Angeles to Beijing yet emerging Internet of Things (IoT) sensory data technology now allows properties to fight back. Scientists and surveyors worldwide are perfecting the practice of monitoring air quality inside of buildings and connecting their findings to larger bodies of data. Global cities like Madrid and Malaga are using this technology to breathe easier in Spain.

4. Smart Fire Alarms

New properties worldwide are implementing awesome fire alarms systems that do more than scream beeping noises.

With the IoT affecting commercial properties, there are many opportunities for advanced security and communication operations during emergencies. Some aspects of new smart fire alarms seem almost too obvious, like the ability to turn on cameras and lights and dispatch authorities for you.

5. Liquid Presence

Liquid detection prevents breakdowns and corrosion in the materials that make up our walls, flooring, ceilings and more. New leakage detection technology checks for the presence of liquid or mold outside of tanks and pressure variations along pipes.

6. Overtime Air

Immediate control over air temperature in your office is a reality. Why wouldn’t you want to keep office lights and air on if you’re working after lease hours? Automating HVAC requests on a mobile app is like Uber for your office A/C system and it even has its own monetary benefits for building owners.

7. Perimeter Access Control

Without access control systems, properties are subject to all kinds of potential security breaches. From unidentified visitors to holes in your cyber security systems, there are new methods for tracking access points, timeframes and more on easy-to-use platforms that will help any property owner to sleep at night.

8. Smart Irrigation

Now your property can use water intelligently. Smart sprinklers may communicate with weather systems and deliver less water during live rainfall. Huge real estate players like CBRE are experimenting with smart water systems and are finding just as huge savings.

9. ‘Frictionless’ Deal Flow

Brandon Weber, Founder and CEO of Hightower, recently noted that,

“Commercial real estate is the last major industry without the ability to gauge how long it takes to close a deal.”

Crazy and true. If you’re interested in beginning to understand how a smoother deal flow might revolutionize your firm, read this awesome piece by Duke Long.

Smooth deal flow fueled by cutting edge technology has the potential to empower every single aspect of CRE including every one of these Out of This World trends. Thanks for reading!