Over 55% of the world’s population lives in urban centers. The number is expected to rise by 1.5 times by 2045.
What’s more, over 80% of the world’s GDP is generated in these urban centers. Since cities contribute significantly to sustainable growth, it’s important to have a realistic and approachable urban development plan.
To be up to date in the urban housing and commercial industry, here are top urban development trends to watch out for this year.
1. Floor-to-Floor Garages
With the rising popularity in on-demand rides and shared car services, car use in cities is slowly dwindling. To address this change, urban development designers are creating garages with taller floor-to-floor heights and flat floorplates. This will make it easy to turn the space into apartments or offices in the near future.
2. Mixed-Use Neighborhoods
Decades of suburban development have led to the crop up of boring, single-use downtowns. With increased interest in creating places where people can be constantly engaged, cities and suburbs are slowly merging to create mixed residential housing with access to different cultures, no maintenance residences, and less reliance on driving.
3. Green Living
With the increased environmental awareness, urban developers are finding new ways to incorporate nature into city living. For instance, planting trees is an effective and natural way to combat storm runoffs.
4. Smart Living
The adoption of IoT in homes has led to increased efficiency and reduced energy costs. Development of apartments with built-in smart devices is slowly becoming a trend.
5. Disaster-Proof Cities
In the wake of natural disasters in the country (such as wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes), developers are now considering to create disaster-proof urban centers. It’ll, therefore, be no surprise to see things like earthquake-proof buildings this year.
6. Downsizing
Since low-income housing is becoming harder and harder to find in urban centers, people are looking toward downsizing in terms of space. Apart from cost savings, more people are realizing that smaller spaces are more intimate and are easier to design and organize.
7. Increase in First-Time Home Buyers
The largest cohort of millennials will be turning 27 to 29 this year. This is usually the home-buying age-group. Since most millennials prefer to live in urban areas, be prepared for a peak in first-time buyer demand in major towns and cities.
8. Blockchain Real Estate
Blockchain is not only affecting real estate transaction. It’s also a decentralized database that enables real estate agents and investors to access more data on properties. This could potentially reduce market fraud.
9. Social Media’s Impact
Today’s generation strongly relies on social media and online reviews to make purchasing decisions. This means that the marketing of real estate and social places will be more concentrated on social media.
10. Development of Senior Living Communities
Not all seniors prefer living in senior homes. This has led to the development of senior living communities where seniors can have their own homes while saving significant amounts of their resources, money, time, and energy.
Stay Up to Date With These Urban Development Trends
If you’re looking for housing property management, then the urban development trends above should keep you in check.
Contact us today for top-notch assisted living and senior housing property management.