What does innovation in property really mean?
With the bar for innovative design constantly being raised to dizzying heights, it can be an exhausting exercise to be repeatedly reaching to move it higher.
While forcing innovative thought can be counter-productive, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in property businesses needing to reinvent the wheel at a pace never seen before.
After all, when innovation is a fundamental factor in the property game, it’s important to realise that all we really mean is having the nimbleness to adapt and evolve to the demands of our clientele in both stable and challenging times.
To do so, developers can hone in on a number of key areas as they endeavour to weave a thread of innovation throughout the fabric of their business.
Design innovation
Innovation in floor plan and living design is essential, and developers and architects alike should be constantly trying to evolve this in a considered, practical way.
This has become particularly prevalent in adapting and appealing to the downsizing market. For instance, ensuring there’s a bedroom on the ground floor of a home and facilitating a maximum level of lighting for potential older residents, developers and designers have had to work symbiotically to respond to growing demand.
Design inspiration can be drawn from a range of outlets — the cogs of an idea can start turning while glaring over your breakfast cereal or driving to the office — there’s no single catalyst for the rumbling engine of an idea being shifted into gear.
More traditional sources of influence take root from things we see online, global design publications, conversations with other developers and generally browsing overseas leaders, but the key to innovation is straining to keep your eyes open for such stimulus while your competition sleeps.
Innovating presentation
The way in which projects are presented is rapidly progressing. We need to be acting smarter in order to acclimatise to the various ways buyers are consuming media, thus we must be constantly improving on the quality and relevance of our displays.
A Mount Waverley warehouse has recently exemplified such adaptations, with their projections of floorplans onto the floor of their space allowing furniture to be added and moved around, thus affording clients the opportunity to plan out their fittings in a conveniently hassle-free way.
Communication and community
Streamlining and succeeding at the everyday operations is what allows those in real estate the key to a reputation of innovation.
This can simply mean continual communication, bi-monthly construction eDMs (including progress updates), or just providing an opportunity to respond directly to customers through a developer- to-customer portal.
It can also mean putting your ear to the wall and listening to the needs of the surrounding community. By investing a deeper understanding into the needs of local residents, developers enable themselves to deliver a product that’s reflective of the wants and needs of those who care most.
An innovative mindset when approaching such discussions facilitates the most revolutionary methods of supporting a project’s surroundings.
Sustainability and low-maintenance living
Pressing your lips to the cup of sustainability is the only way to survive as a business in 2020 and beyond.
From use of materials, through to energy outlets, solar panels and battery storage, purchasers and the public now have a taste for the flavour of eco-conscious consumption.
An increase in low-maintenance properties is also symptomatic of an innovative property market. Convenience marks the key philosophy of almost all clients, with sustainability even taking a backseat where ease is concerned.
The use of synthetic products, water sprinkling systems, digital integration (pin code access) and a smart home system connected to heating and cooling are prerequisites for organisations attempting to reach that high bar of innovative offerings. If you want to jump over it, remember that an adaptive outlook always adds a spring to your leap.
