A Connection to Tomorrow: Are you ready for the post-pandemic home?

We’re excited to be launching our whitepaper on the ‘post-pandemic’ home in collaboration with Hyperoptic, developed with qualitive and quantitative research of 311 property experts, as well as a survey of 2,000 Brits. This follows our hugely successful ‘A Connection to Tomorrow’ white paper, which explored the future of technology and communications in real estate.

The full paper contains an incredible amount of insight on a range of topics from the public’s opinion on work from home to property experts views on in-home technology. We were delighted to also have the input of Tom Cheesewright, Applied Futurist as well as eight key contributors from the industry.

Below is an excerpt, written by Debra. The full paper can be downloaded here.

In the first whitepaper with Hyperoptic in  2019, we asked what future challenges will be the greatest to face the Property Sector in the next twenty years. Unsurprisingly no one said, “a global pandemic”.  Neither did they say digital infrastructure. In fact, at that time, it was disappointing that whilst there was deep recognition of the importance of high speed broadband there was an apparent lack of strategic thinking about investment in new technologies for the built environment.  

COVID has fast tracked many changes and inevitably this has included in-home and asset-based technology.  

Even in the time between starting and finishing this project, our attitude to technology and our daily lives has continued to adapt, it is hard to imagine another world event that could accelerate our thinking about every aspect of our daily lives, as COVID has.  

Working digitally has quickly become the norm for many, we have certainly adapted quicker in the latest lockdown, the sense of being a “digital pioneer” as we joined transatlantic teams calls or chatted to our colleagues on Slack has faded.  

Socially we have shifted from enthusiastically enjoying the uniqueness of digital socialisation to it becoming a necessity of daily life because otherwise most social interaction would have been lost, particularly for the older generations who have had to be open to engaging with technologies that they had previously been able to ignore.  

Our digital infrastructure has enabled us to home-school, binge a Netflix series, celebrate births and mourn the dead, enjoy a virtual drink, learn to Zumba or simply just get through a Zoom call without saying “sorry my broadband is awful today”. It is truly as important as water, electricity and gas and is certainly our fourth utility.  

In our survey one person suggested that the technology of the future will be a “digital fatigue button” and now the idea of being able to have a “digital detox” is no longer radical, we do need more balance for our own wellbeing.  It is clear from our research and the panel interviews that we will return to the office and also continue to work from home, all places will need to provide the digital resources to accommodate our future lives.  

So, it is evident that the importance of high-speed broadband and investment in other future technologies is now more critical to the success of places than ever because although we may soon be able to press a digital fatigue button for a temporary pause, we cannot turn back the clock.  Our demand for connectivity will not lessen and the property industry must plan for future change.