How Will Technology affect Property Demand?

Just wondering the thoughts of the many experts on here on the short/medium/long term affects of technology on property demand/prices.
I can see self driving cars, for instance, having a dramatic effect on demand for train lines and public transport and general proximity to a workplace as you will be able to eat and read etc on your way to work in your private vehicle so a short trip wont be as punishing as it currently is, not to mention traffic flow will be far more efficient.
That then leads me to the next critical technology imo, Augmented Reality.
I can see University campuses for example, being far less relevant as people will be able to sit anywhere in the world and yet still essentially be there. Likewise and more critically, many businesses, particularly the type that are predominant in cities will not need to be there and so economic pressures will eventually see these major businesses currently headquarted in major cities more widely distributed into cheaper regional areas, imo.
The cars will begin to have a significant effect withinin 10 years imo, AR will be similar and will be a MAJOR disruptor within 20 years.
Considering most are investing for the long term, I am wondering if anyone is putting any thought into these things and others?
I can imagine many of the current "drivers" of growth changing and some very expensive areas becoming far less valuable and likewise some outliers becoming in high demand.

Perhaps I am looking too far ahead, but I am interested in others thoughts

 

The biggest impact will come as more organisations decentralise and allow staff to work full-time from home and not have to travel to work at all. I'm an IT consultant, the company I work for has around 30 staff but no office. We're either onsite or at home. I average probably 3 days per week at home. That's 3 days per week where it doesn't matter where I live, so long as I have access to a fast, reliable Internet connection. That's 3 days per week where I have zero demand for proximity to any workplace and zero demand for public transport. The days I'm not at home are usually spent appeasing old-fashioned managers who don't like the idea of staff working from home - none of those days are spent doing anything that I can't do from home.

As organisations take advantage of flexibility with new backend technologies, the easier it will be for them to decentralise.

 

Let's break down your post, and my thoughts on the points you covered.

- Self driving cars: I don't believe there will be a dramatic effect on the demand for train lines and public transport as self driving cars (if it ever does take off) will be come at a premium cost + all maintenance costs too. The small cost of taking public transport and not having to worry about parking will be much beneficial then spending x amount of money on a self driving car. And even then, I don't believe self driving cars will 'take off'. Technology fails. And if it does, it can be catastrophic especially in a vehicle. This is why human control and perception of our surroundings when driving a car is far better than any computer/program. The technology with cars will be more so changing away from using fossil fuels to run our cars. And it's happening now. All you need to do is look at the technology coming out from companies like Ferrari, Lamborghini etc

- Augmented Reality: This is fantastic as it allows people to learn or experience things without physically being 'there' to experience it. As you mentioned, particularly in university. This makes learning and being able to access information more easier than it was allowing people to learn quicker and more efficiently.

And onto how technology will effect property? It will help people have more access to information and also allow them to view the properties without actually physically being there; Augmented reality. This in turn will open the field up to more investors who want to jump on the property bandwagon as it will appear more easier to access information and view houses than it was before. From a real estate agent point of view, they will always be around. Nothing beats human interaction. But as @Davothegreat mentioned, technology will allow agents to work from wherever they want to.

 

You have missed the two biggest game changers both of which are a reality right now but our brain dead parliament refuse to understand and instead focus on debating negative gearing and CGT changes.

1 - Without question, a national broadband network with fibre to the home should be this countries highest priority. The NBN is a DISASTER!!!!!!! Worst managed and deployed project I have ever seen. This is the single biggest game changer. A requirement to be in the office is becoming more and more obsolete but with pathetic internet people have no choice. They simply cannot be productive at home.
Fix this and you have fixed the biggest hurdle facing us today with regards to needing to be in close proximity to the CBD. I would gladly move somewhere more remote if I had a 100m connection to my home.

2 - A fast rail connecting major cities. I'm based in Melbourne and their has been endless talk about connecting us to Sydney but nothing more than talk. Again you build a rail that connects the 2 CBDs with a trip taking 2 hours and think about the stops in between. You could live in Albury and be an hour away from work in either Sydney or Melbourne.

Combine the two together and do you think I'm living in Melbourne in my 1mil property???
Zero chance! I'm selling and moving straight up to the Murray on a huge block of land with a boat and a lot of change.

 

Another way to learn but I doubt it slow down campus or people going on to campus, you go to university for more things than just lectures, you hang out with friends, you meet like-minded people, you party and drink, the social interaction aspect of University is very rewarding and it not something I would give up

 

I'm with @albanga on this.. connecting cities will be the game changer. Currently you can buy a house in the Latrobe valley for $100k, centre of town walking distance to all amenities. if there was a fast rail connection that could get you to the city in under 1 hour, that puts it on par with middle-outer suburbs where houses are selling for $600k+.

self driving cars are novel, but the reality is there would be far too much congestion. I already cycle a 30km round trip to work because its faster than driving and i dont have to put up with a slow, packed train.

 

Apparently it's the next move for the sharing economy - hot bedding. You cram 3 times at many people into a bedroom giving each an 8 hour rotating slot for sleeping.

At everyone is telecommuting with the advent of NBN, your work space is only footsteps away and meeting facilities are up the road for teleconferences.

It provides for greater utilisation of furniture, creates a more balanced use of utilities/finite resources and increases income.

IIRC it's called Uber beds.

 

Once all the self driving cars are connected to one another and manual driving is banned there won't be any congestion. At the rate of terrorists running over civilians there is a good excuse its going to happen sooner than later.

 

I can't seen any self-respecting red blooded join giving up the freedom of self-driving a muscle car in the near future. Automatrons simply aren't spontaneous and won't drop the clutch on a wet road.

 

Interesting thread. From a Real Estate POV I think there's two things to consider:
Automation will cause many people to lose their jobs, and I can't yet see what job roles are coming to replace them. This may affect affordability and thus push people out of the cities.
Those who do still have jobs will have more choice as the need to be 'on site' diminishes. People may thus choose to leave the city.
Combining these two factors with many people reaching retirement with no tangible assets other than their homes, I foresee a demographic that will need to sell and move out of the cities to top up their Super.
I am hoping that all these factors will see the Regional areas do well from an investment perspective....particularly along rail lines... but hey, who knows really?

 

Majority of our problems are a simple result of short sighted outlooks with a band-aid approach.

Sane Person = "The morning commute into the city is a killer"
Government = "I have the answer! We will add a few more lanes onto the freeway"
Sane Person = "O.K and I am guessing more access into the CBD from these extra lanes?"
Government = "OH NO, just a wider freeway"
Sane Person = "But wont it just bottleneck into the same positions it always has?"
Government = "Yeah but at least you will get to that bottleneck sooner".
Sane Person = "Yeah I get that but its the same amount of traffic, so wont it just mean more time waiting at the bottle necks?"
Government = "......"

Don't even get me started on the bloody East/West link in Melbourne.
Of all the dumb things I've seen our government do, this one has to take the cake.
What kind of backward city do we live in that you need to drive into the CBD to get from one side to the other?????

 

You would love BCC. /s

 

"Technology fails. And if it does, it can be catastrophic especially in a vehicle. This is why human control and perception of our surroundings when driving a car is far better than any computer/program."

Would have to respectfully disagree. Humans behind the wheel of a car are already high risk with catastrophes-a plenty. Considering the sheer number of vehicle movements per day I think a computer could hardly be worse.

We already rely on technology for a myriad things. Things do go wrong but this is the nature of life. Sometimes its about the least bad option.

 

Thing is, humans malfunction individually. If there is a glitch in self driving software, itll happen to multiple vehicles.

 

I'd love to see an automatron take off in 3rd to stop the wheelspin in the rain only to then spontaneously go "ahh f&^* it" and tramp it anyway. About the only thing I miss about my old HSV.

 

Yes this is well proven, just not understood.

Error rate for humans is much much higher en masse that for self driving cars, even with today's primitive technology...

Starting point is xx amount of deaths per year from drunk drivers etc...

We can reduce those significantly with political will and desire for change.

 

Yep expect increased unemployment in service industries and big corporations... look at NAB recently.

Sacked 6000, going to hire 2000 technology specialists instead, on the cheap you would expect... instead of offshoring they will just hire recent immigrants who they can train up.

 

They are already losing their V8's, slowly but surely.

 

But there's always this:

 

Same way that planes drop like flies ?