As residential apartments become more of a feature in large urban mixed-use developments, residents are happy to work, rest and play in the same location. These developments are becoming larger in scale and more centrally located.
A dynamic 21st Century solution to build and maintain community and a sense of home atthese large urban hubsis essential for their success. Meeting with residents will still take place, however with mixed-use developments often including anywhere between 500 and 1000 residential homes upwards, this is where it is particularly necessary to look at the technology that can provide solutions for managing a large number of residential and commercial occupiers.
Residents want a 24hour solution, not only to log their enquiry, but also to have this resolved by return. As well as the traditional methods of contacting your Property Management Team, out of hours responses are moving more towards AI and “chat-boxes” where digital systems are created to answer both residential and commercial occupier’s enquiries there and then.
By being able to answer customer queries in this way, this allows the on-site Concierge Team more time to be hands on and available to all their Residents and Customers and provide 5 Star Hotel style service.
As technology continues to move at a rapid pace, Social Media is a growing interaction tool for information on specific developments, discussion forums and as a platform to raise concerns. Managing Agents via IT platforms can control events and advise Residents (both commercial and residential) of what events are available. It is fast moving towards a position where residential and commercial occupiers will all be in contact with each other directly, creating their own community interaction and arranging their own events.
The data, when analysed, will give the owners of such developments and their Agents detailed information on how best to deliver the services their residents, commercial occupiers and visitors desire. Where such developments include retail and F&B offerings, it is important to give the public what they want. Such data will also inform retail and F&B where best to position certain units for maximum footfall.
Observing all the trends of a large resi mixed-use development will help plan the future needs of such developments. The better the digital infrastructure in place, the more amixed-use development can keep up to speed with what the residents and the public want, future proofing such destinations as much as possible.
Steven Room, Head of Residential Development at Lee Baron
