Living in 2030 Zukunftsinstitut set to identify the biggest future trends in living and housing for Deutsche Wohnen
The pandemic has changed what we need to live and work. However, aside from the crisis, the property sector is already facing megatrends, such as digitisation and an ageing society, that are set to impact the future of living and housing. Deutsche Wohnen picked up on this early on and has already been working with proptech firms for several years. Now we’re going a step further and working with Zukunftsinstitut, who are set to advise us on recognising and taking advantage of key trends.
Zukunftsinstitut (which means the “institute of the future” in English) was founded in 1998 by futurist Matthias Horx and has played a major role in shaping trend research and futurology in Germany from the outset. The aim of our collaboration with Zukunftsinstitut is to get a clear idea of our level of preparedness for key issues and challenges in order to come up with specific outcomes and a clear roadmap for the future direction of Deutsche Wohnen. “We want to know about the megatrends of the future and how we can best position ourselves to face them,” explains Simon Stöckicht, director of Customer Communications and Service Strategy at Deutsche Wohnen.
The focus is on optimising and expanding our service portfolio. “We want to better understand our customers and their needs and increase customer satisfaction,” says Stöckicht. What can offer our customers in our neighbourhoods and apartments real value? Which products and services should we offer our customers to meet their needs? What kind of partnerships should we enter into to do this in future? Deutsche Wohnen is drawing on Zukunftsinstitut’s knowledge of societal trends to answer these questions. The findings should be ready by the end of the year.
We use future trends to optimise our customer service
Deutsche Wohnen has been drawing on innovative technologies and concepts to improve its service portfolio for some time. Together with different partners we’ve developed our own smart home solution known as “MiA – My intelligent Assistant”, which is already in use in some of Deutsche Wohnen’s portfolio. With the use of the keyless entry system KIWI, developed by the proptech firm of the same name, we’ve already taken a huge step towards digital services. But we’re not just working with smart living concepts; we’re looking at ideas for co-working, too. Accordingly, we’ve spent several months trialling a co-working space in the Berlin district of Hellersdorf. The service has begun to catch on: six or seven of the 16 workstations are in constant use. Expanding the concept to other locations is likely.
REAL PropTech 2021 – Deutsche Wohnen is on board
This year’s REAL PropTech is also set to tackle the issues of the future. Deutsche Wohnen is a partner in the conference, a leading event focusing on digitisation, innovation and sustainability in the construction and property sector. With the motto “Think 2030”, a range of experts from real estate, business and politics will present their visions on the themes “technologies and business models” on 2 and 3 September. Representing Deutsche Wohnen, Simon Stöckicht will give a talk on the “future of living” at the conference.