The pandemic has greatly changed how people work and how they spend their leisure time. For governments and infrastructure planners, the challenge is identifying which changes are here to stay and which may be more temporary. What will the dominant work and lifestyle trends be going forward? And how will our cities and built assets evolve accordingly?
One trend that appears to be growing in strength is “liveability". This is about the experience created by built assets and how they are managed, spanning lifestyle, life-cycle, sustainability and affordability.
As KPMG observes in Emerging Trends in Infrastructure 2022, before the pandemic the general prediction was that people were shifting to "work/live" communities in suburbs and city centres: "weak signals already suggested people wanted to reduce their commute time and enjoy more work-life balance. City planners were seeking (often without much luck) to reduce the suburban sprawl and mix up the downtown core".
A split picture for work/life choices
But since COVID there has been a big split in expectations. Some people are moving towards the downtown core. They want the vibrancy and connectedness of a city centre but without the commute. Convenience takes precedence over space, though cost is still a key factor.
Others want to take full advantage digitisation and continue working remotely most of the time. Many are moving into smaller towns and regional areas, to the extent of causing housing affordability issues for the local population. Real estate analysts observe a "mass exodus of many renters from major city centres to regional towns" driving rents up and straining limited infrastructure.
Recent research from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and the University of Sydney highlights the need for investment in infrastructure, transport, and telecommunications infrastructure in regional areas. Importantly, it notes that liveability is key: "A clear message to emerge is that population and economic growth are not on their own sufficient to drive sustainable and balanced employment outcomes, and that ‘success’ should be measured more broadly, by also looking into liveability, environmental impacts and the social impacts of growth."
Moving to more flexible, agile assets
The challenge for the infrastructure industry is that these two paths require different approaches: in investment, assets and priorities. How can assets be developed and run to serve all work and lifestyle preferences? With hybrid work becoming the norm across most industries, and e-commerce continuing alongside bricks-and-mortar retail, there’s also no one single model for commercial space.
Research from KPMG sees the answer is flexibility. Currently there is a shift from mass production assets, such as factories, to mass customisation ones, such as food home delivery. Monolithic assets that served the masses with a single purpose are no longer relevant. Instead it’s about smaller, "tailored assets" that can be managed flexibly and optimised to meet individual user needs:
"Flexibility will also be key. Indeed, new assets will need to be planned and delivered with sufficient flexibility to allow for change of use over time. Residential assets are being created in ways that would allow them to quickly pivot from hotel to apartment, apartment to student housing, and from student housing to hotel — as local demand changes."
While KPMG doesn’t anticipate radical changes in investment priorities in the short term, it does anticipate increased prioritisation of assets that support a variety of different lifestyles.
For asset managers, having the tools and processes in place to adapt and respond to evolving trends will be critical. Future-proofing and preparing for an age of uncertainty is challenging. Tomorrow’s assets will be more complex and intelligent, and require investment in intelligent digital systems to manage them.
If you’d like to know more about how AssetFuture can help you prepare your organisation for the digital future of built assets, please contact us to find out about what our platform can do.