Twenty years is enough time for innovations to become widely adopted but not quite long enough to render the world unrecognisable. Real estate generally has a long life span, stretching into decades or even longer, so changes to the landscape are relatively slow. However, there are trends in motion set to alter the shape of what our towns and cities will look like in the future.
Kim Politzer, director of research for European Real Estate, and Adrian Benedict, investment director for Real Estate, unpick five key themes - sustainability, autonomous vehicles, intergenerational living, mixed-use schemes and smart cities - and gaze into the future to imagine how they will influence the real estate industry in 2039.