Urban Farming, Retail & Housing Trends and Millennial Work Habits Top the Predictions by Year 2025

It was a privilege to attend IREM’s Leadership Summit and listen to Chris Lee’s predictions for 2015 and well beyond. Chris is author of Transformational Leadership in the New Age of Real Estate.

There were 25 predictions in total – these are the highlights.  Chris’ introduction contained this disclaimer to the right!

Anyway, here they are:

1. Virtual office space will be the norm.

2. National Building Codes – it will be unlawful to not comply with energy standards.

3. Highrise farms and urban farming will continue to “grow:”

• 12 story buildings = 600 acres in the urban core growing food (i.e. Marijuana in Denver!).
• Growing products in shipping containers.

4.  Construction moves towards robots for office construction (30% more efficient) – 10 million jobs were lost to robotics to date.

5.  Amazon will grow to be the #1 retailer (implication to traditional retail shopping centers).

6.  Other retail trends:

• “Delivery” vs. traditional shopping.
• Online sales are 8% today; when it hits 15-20% the retail model will fail.
• Consumer has control, not the retailer.
• Reduced prior meal planning (“I’ll pick up dinner at Whole Foods”).
• 66% of shoppers do comparison shopping WHILE IN a retail store.
• Only 41% of population shops at traditional grocery stores.
• Marriott, Starbucks are piloting meeting rooms for large scale “meet up” meetings.
• Fed Ex and 7-11 are partnering to deliver packages more securely & efficiently – we’ll pick up our Fed Ex packages at the local 7-11.

7.  Less work space needed due to generational work habits:

8.  By 2020 46% of workforce will be Millennials:

• 43% will telecommute.
• Only 30% will work in an office.

9.  Home ownership peaked in 2006 at 69.3%.

• Will be 60% in 2020.
• Rental is the trend.

10.  Indications of a rental-based society:

• Uber
• iTunes
• Rental properties (Air B&B, VRBO, Rent vs. Buy)

11.  Cyber attacks will impact EVERYONE – no one is exempt.

12.  We will be a cashless society.

13.  By 2025 the smartphone we all depend upon will be gone/replaced by artificial intelligence, sensory-based, lifestyle remote controls, host-based (this means you can bolt on and detach various modules based on where you are and what you need), bendable, with 20-year batteries, floating screens (the “Quantum Photonic Image”), and ability to move seamlessly among IMS-enabled networks.

Trends are just trends.  Do you recognize any of them as you read them? Do you and Chris share the same opinions about the future?