Real estate leaders doubtful on smart buildings

While the large majority of Australian commercial real estate leaders agree that smart building technology is critical to positive building development, less than half are willing to invest in the technology, research from Schneider Electric shows.

A survey from the energy management company shows that 83% of representatives of Australian corporate retail sector — including tenants, developers and designers — believe that smart building technologies are crucial to their business strategy. But only 43% are prepared to invest in a smart building.

Schneider Electric VP for Strategy and Transformation Preeti Bajaj attributed this gap between the belief in the benefits of smart building technology and readiness to invest to inertia.

“The challenge we have in Australia is that the industry is hesitant to invest in change,” he said.

“With the evolution of smart buildings well underway in Europe, developers, tenants and advisors here in Australia need to work together now to reap the rewards of these technological advancements and make next-generation workplaces a reality.”

The inexorable shift towards digitisation demands that real estate companies take action to bridge this gap soon, the report states.

Smart buildings incorporate data-driven improvements in workspace design and usage, drawing on new technologies such as wearables to improve employee efficiency and meet the needs of a multigenerational workforce.

An overwhelming 95% of participants agreed that the wellbeing of their employees and the potential impact on productivity are key components of their corporate and real estate strategy, the study shows.

“We have seen how smart buildings are creating connected human-centric workspaces that have intuitive awareness of occupancy and usage,” Preeti said.

“But ultimately, buildings are only enablers of economic activity. People, workplaces and technology must each be considered of equal importance in increasing productivity and innovation.”

The survey also indicates that there is high awareness of smart building technologies among the corporate real estate sector, with 68% of respondents agreeing that they fully understand what a smart building is.

Image courtesy of Rory Hyde under CC