How Tech Is Changing the Future of Modern Housing

It’s a common occurrence for trade shows to feature houses of the future: they’re ostensibly glimpses at what’s to come, but it’s typically somewhat questionable how accurate they are. Very often, they have more in common with the optimistic visions of science-fiction works (at least, the hopeful science-fiction works from the early 20th century) than with real projections.

At this point, though, we needn’t imagine complex intersections of housing and technology: such intersections are already in place, and the tech being embraced by early adopters worldwide can give us a clear view of what’s in store for the next decade and beyond. But it isn’t just about implementing tech within the home: it’s also about using it for matters pertaining to the home.

In truth, as can be said for many areas of life, there isn’t much about housing that isn’t being pushed along by tech. In this post, we’re going to take a closer look at how this is happening:

It’s making it easier to find and afford housing

Before we had the near-unlimited search options provided by the internet, people interested in buying property had to find the time to deal with estate agents, make it clear what they were looking for, and arrange multiple viewings so they could reach worthwhile conclusions. Things have changed massively since then.

Today, if you’re interested in buying a house, you can simply go to one of many house listing sites (HubSpot has a great list here) and carry out a filtered search. No more trawling through text to determine which properties have gardens: simply select the garden option and pick through the results. Not overly eager to arrange a viewing? Well, you can try a virtual tour, going through 360-degree video from the property to form a solid idea of what it’s like.

And if you find a place you want to buy, you can even use tech to find a good deal. While not every mortgage broker has kept up with tech developments, it isn’t hard to find those that have — and by using an online broker like Breezeful (enhanced by machine learning), you can yield optimized mortgage offers that suit what you can afford and your preferred mortgage length.

It’s allowing buyers to relax their criteria

Property buyers from yesteryear would generally have strict criteria about their potential homes, and not driven entirely by preference: many requirements would be enforced by their careers. If you have to make it into the office, you need a home that’s adequately close to that office. Now, though, we’re seeing buyers have a lot more freedom, and it’s all due to technology.

Technology allows many people to work from home all the time, an option that’s become entirely standard due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also allows them to get vital supplies delivered (making it less important how close to stores they are). And the combination of expanding infrastructure and ever-improving mobile data connections — even a 4G data connection is more than enough for the average internet user (WhistleOut runs through the top plans for this) — means that country houses are now viable.

For many people, this is an exciting development. They no longer need to be tethered to city life if they want to work city jobs. They can work for a city company, make the trip on occasion, and live in a quiet area with better views and much lower property prices. In time, this might even serve to reduce the population density of many big cities.

It’s making home life safer and more comfortable

It used to be prohibitively expensive and awkward to have home safety systems set up, then just as awkward to manage them. Through IoT connectivity and general improvements in tech, it’s now possible to set up video monitoring systems at a relatively-low cost and run them through smartphone apps. You can couple them with unpickable home locks using NFC chips.

You can also make a home more comfortable through automatically regulating and optimizing things like temperature, humidity, and even light level. Through setting a schedule, you can have everything power down while you’re out of the house, then power back on and achieve your perfect house conditions ready for your expected arrival.

In addition to the comfort that stems from that process, it also saves on energy, something that’s extremely important to achieve in a time of great environmental concern (particularly since the tech industry is otherwise a huge energy draw). Using AI systems to reduce energy use is something that can make a big difference if done across the board.

Technology is contributing to almost every element of housing these days, and there are many points we didn’t have the time to cover: the construction industry, for instance, is hitting new levels of efficiency due to the influence of technology in everything from initial planning to final delivery.