Publications

- June 1, 2015: Vol. 9, Number 6

To read this full article you need to be subscribed to Institutional Real Estate Europe

Welcome to the machine: As technology unfurls, real estate markets alter course

by Steve Bergsman

If one looks at the history of technology and investment in real estate, it would unfold in a structure not much different than that of a classic, three-act play. The drama of the story, if not the tragedy, is introduced in Act One; the response to the onset of the drama unfolds in Act Two; and we behold the bright and sunny future in Act Three.

Translating all that into purely real estate terms, Act One was all about retail, which for the most part is our recent past; Act Two is about logistics, or redefining the structural problems created by the change in retail, a current mode; and Act Three is about office space and the changing nature of the workplace, or the near future. The curtain opens Not even Shakespeare could write a more dramatic opening act. Internet advances and correspondingly new technology sweep across the global retail scene. Digitalised and media retail is the first to suffer as record/CD, movie/DVD and bookstores all began to

Forgot your username or password?