Here are a few recent Real Estate trends that have caught the fancy of Residential Real Estate developers, investors and home buyers:

Smart Homes

The general understanding of Smart Homes is of homes that are automated. This is but a limited view. Smart homes or intelligent homes are more than being merely able to check power and energy consumption on a smartphone app and reducing, enhancing or stopping the use of resources through such apps. Truly smart homes are structures that can optimize energy consumption, streamline facilities management and maximize the efficiency of occupants; they are safer and more productive for occupants and also operationally efficient for the owners or builders.

Creation of a smart home starts when architects, engineers, builders and owners explore a project’s key physical and functional characteristics digitally before it is built thus helping them gain valuable insights into the way projects are planned, designed, built and managed.

To summarize, smart homes are not just about gadgets and technology but about an attitude, a way of life and a lifestyle that is futuristic, sustainable and of course, smart. Although there aren’t many homes that are truly smart, as awareness develops and an understanding of the benefits of such homes grows, we can expect to see this trend rapidly gain mainstream acceptance.

Green Homes

Home buyers are showing a keen interest in not just the trappings of modern living when they set out to buy a house but also in buying homes that are green and sustainable. And, Real Estate Developers have responded with alacrity. They have become alert to the reality of the pressures on land and its scarce resources and its repercussions on human life. Builders in Chennai too are embracing various facets of the India Green Building Council’s (IGBC) Rating System, if not the rating system in toto, in their projects. This is manifesting itself in projects that are:

Water Efficient – Installing rainwater harvesting and efficient plumbing systems, using the natural contours and even locally adapted flora of the land, waste water treatment etc.

Energy Efficient – Using CFC-free equipment, using renewable energy generators, energy saving measures in buildings, appliances and other equipment, efficient energy distribution etc.

Resource Efficient – Use of materials that are locally sourced, use of materials with recycled content and rapidly renewable building materials, optimal handling of construction waste, waste segregation and waste management etc.