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The fundamental design and layout of our homes is unlikely to change with the arrival of 5G. However, new technologies that come with 5G, such as VR, may see us use existing spaces differently, while existing technologies, like smart home systems, will be improved upon and more widely adopted.

Smart(er) homes

Smart homes were defined by the (then) as early as 2003 as “a dwelling incorporating a communications network that connects the key electrical appliances and services, and allows them to be remotely controlled, monitored or accessed.” So the underlying concept is not novel, even if it has only just started to see real world use. Smart homes are effectively using the Internet of Things within a domestic setting. Put simply, think of the benefits cities will gain from 5G but achieved on a smaller scale: increased efficiency thanks to greater connectivity, data-gathering and insight monitoring everything from energy usage to air quality. Smart homes exist now at a very basic level thanks to products such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home. will be spent on Smart Home devices in the UK in 2019 and, given the benefits (cheaper bills and more free time), it’s not hard to see why. Compared to 2003, broadband is also faster, more reliable and more affordable, although still with its limitations, such as limited capacity compared to 5G.  Many current smart home set-ups suffer from fragmentation and complexity as the devices will typically either use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and may not be able to communicate with a device produced by a different manufacturer. While the likes of Microsoft and Amazon have tried to create interfaces that tie various devices together, we are still some way off from true interoperability.  However, when 5G is rolled out, devices will be able to connect directly to the 5G network. This means all the devices will be using the same protocol, enabling more effective interaction between them. Most likely this will be done through voice control and facial recognition, the two main battlegrounds in consumer tech right now. However advancements will not come without difficulties:

5G can theoretically reach around 1- or 2- millisecond response times, whereas Wi-Fi will typically be 10 to 100 times less responsive. However, consultants CapGemini estimate setting up a , meaning the savings accrued in, for example, optimised energy or water usage, may take several years to realise.  There are also concerns about 5G’s ability to work inside buildings without the support of extra infrastructure thanks to 5G’s higher frequencies. 5G is also likely to be an energy-intensive technology, meaning battery-powered devices are unlikely to be usable within a 5G-powered smart home. 5G will also coincide with the arrival of Wi-Fi 6, which also promises faster speeds, greater capacity and reduced latency, but is likely to be rolled out faster than 5G as it doesn’t have the same infrastructure requirements. Experts also believe Wi-Fi 6 will be more suited to dense, indoor environments than 5G. Therefore there are big question marks over whether 5G-enabled smart homes will be as widely adopted as some predict.

Cloud everything

An alternate reality

As concerns grow over the environmental impact of private transport, cities are under pressure to cut car use. Yet developers face the dilemma that demand for parking facilities remains high, even in central urban locations, which politically drives planning committees to require provision.   Yet as set out in the cities chapter, the much hailed autonomous vehicle (AV) revolution will become one step closer to reality once 5G is fully rolled out. This is because cars will be able to gather enough information about their surroundings and respond appropriately without human intervention through thousands of connected sensors talking to each other.

Less car-parking

Smart constructioN

While the way we build has barely changed in a century, a construction skills crisis, worsened by Brexit, has led the property industry to move towards off-site fabrication. 5G will not only support off-site fabrication within the factory environment in the same way it would for manufacturing in other sectors (see the logistics chapter), it will also make on-site construction safer and more efficient by enabling the remote use of equipment with the same precision and speed as being there physically. Currently, remote control systems have a delay between what does and what can be seen on video, creating room for mistakes and errors. The lower latency 5G offers will reduce this lag and help achieve real-time, remote use of equipment. For hazardous sites especially, this would mean reduced safety risks.  Meanwhile, telecoms giant Vodafone estimates that its will enable construction sites, railways, roads and other infrastructure projects to be surveyed up to 20 times faster than by ground-based teams.

Smart buildings

For owners and operators of apartment blocks, which are set to become more common across the UK, thanks to the rise of build-to-rent, co-living and other types of unitised accommodation, 5G will allow them to develop their own internal infrastructure to create “smart buildings” through a network of sensors and devices. Like homeowners, investors and operators will be concerned with how best to effectively manage their energy consumption, lighting, safety systems and air quality.  An integrated network of sensors powered by 5G will allow building managers to monitor data in real time. As outlined at the start of this chapter, this will enable savings at scale and help reduce gross-to-net leakage.  For buildings with amenities, occupancy sensors can track footfall in shared spaces, which could inform building design later down the line as investors can work out what facilities are popular with residents and which aren’t. For institutionally-owned blocks, the insights offered by 5G will enable investors to better benchmark their investments, while for operators they will help with the marketing of homes. Being able to highlight the air quality of your building compared to rival blocks, or the industry average in an increasingly health-conscious age, will be a major bonus. For existing buildings, this will be a case of retrofitting with new sensors and devices to ensure optimal performance, while for future developments, this will mean considering how the building design and materials used can best support 5G connectivity.  Yet making entire buildings ‘smart’ comes with risks, namely from data breaches and hacking, and so cyber-security must be at the forefront of any building manager’s mind, especially given the particularly sensitive and personal nature of information that could likely be stolen.  A key question is whether smart buildings will ultimately achieve higher values than non-smart buildings, allowing investors to see returns from investing in creating smart buildings other than operational efficiencies.

In-building infrastructure

As IoT technology evolves over time, regular updates will be needed to keep kit updated. For accountants, take note: this means in-building infrastructure will become an opex cost rather than capex one.  For all its many positives, there is one key technical flaw to 5G: the difficulty it will have penetrating into buildings without any aid. Why? Because part of what makes 5G so valuable is its ability to use a much wider spectrum at higher frequencies, which cannot penetrate through materials as easily. As a result, when 5G becomes available, most buildings will require in-building infrastructure such as hubs and antenna for reliable coverage. Depending on the layout, antennas can be hidden or embedded into furniture. There are some caveats to this. In 2020, Ofcom is going auction spectrum at 700 MHz. 5G will operate on this band as well, at least initially. It has at a low frequency, good in-building penetration. Most likely you’ll see it used for more rural areas. So, whether you need all the hubs etc, depends on whether you are in a building area where it is being used for 5G. Certainly once you see mm wave 5G, then in-building infrastructure is likely to be needed.

Many expect the arrival of driverless automobiles will lead to a decline in car ownership, with private cars replaced by ride-hailing services such as, unsurprisingly, Uber. that car ownership will fall from 1.2 cars per household in England today to 0.7 cars per household once autonomous vehicles are the established norm. If true, this reduced demand for car parking as a result will free up more land for housing or alternative uses. However, predictions - particularly from vested interest groups like ride hailing firms - can be wrong. If driverless cars become cheaper and more ubiquitous - allowing disabled people for instance, to “drive” - use will increase. Unless people plan to live in cities full of zombie cars, roaming dead-eyed through the night, parking will still be required, potentially for more vehicles.  Plus, with the expected boom in electric vehicles, charging infrastructure will need to be installed near housing for some time to come, posing challenges of its own around power infrastructure as we discuss in the Cities chapter with the boss of Extra MSA.

The increasing specialisation of residential means we have to consider the impact of 5G on a sector-by-sector basis. For example, operators of later living housing will have to think about how best to adapt new technology for elder residents compared to operators of student accommodation. However, some industry figures warn against operators being too seduced by new tech, especially if seeing it as a replacement to human experience.

Build-to-rent: connectivity will be king

Many BTR operators pitch themselves at young, footloose professionals. But whether they’re graduating from university or fresh from divorce, central urban dwellers will demand on digital connectivity, so staying ahead in the 5G arms race will be key. A home for sale with poor connectivity would struggle to sell, and it is even worse for a rental landlord as tenants vote with their feet, and can move very quickly compared to homeowners. Within the BTR space in particular, all-in-one management contracts, providing everything from water to electricity, are seen as an increasingly important offer to tenants and connectivity needs to be a fundamental part of that. The days of waiting four weeks for the broadband guy to turn up will be long behind us, thankfully.  Wi-Fi is a utility and is becoming a big part of the sales pitch and investors are seeing the potential with their marketing. Fresh from its success in offices, WiredScore recently launched WiredScore Home, a certificate of connectivity for residential schemes, with levels ranging from Certified to Platinum. Landlords including Legal & General, Patrizia, Long Harbour, and Argent have already signed up, with 4,000 homes committed to the residential certification at launch. Henry Pethybridge, Director of WiredScore Home, said it would help landlords “turn digital connectivity from a utility into an amenity”. WiredScore's rating scheme helps landlords understand how to implement best in class digital infrastructure into their buildings to improve tenants' experience and reduce the risk of technological obsolescence. While some landlords complain that WiredScore’s system doesn’t fully recognise everything, on the whole it’s a much needed venture that will add transparency into the mix helping landlords and their customers have an honest conversation around connectivity.

Later living: tech-enabled care

While the potential for holographic video games or drone taxis is still unclear, one absolute certainty is that Western cities are all getting older. Britain has a greying population and there is growing recognition of the need for a dedicated later living sector as exists across the US, Australia and New Zealand. Not only can this free up existing housing stock by moving older couples rattling around in large family homes to denser developments, but it could allow the elderly to be catered to in a communal setting that allows them to maintain independence and agency, while potentially saying the NHS billions of pounds by helping prevent accidents. Smart home technology will play a key role here, such as body-worn sensors monitoring heart rate, blood pressure and internal temperature or ones placed around the home that use miniaturised radar technology and can check how frequently someone is using the bathroom, how long they are in there or if they are becoming less active overall. To Joe Gaunt, founder of health tech start-up Hero that is working with BTR landlord Moda Living and Legal & General’s Inspired Villages Group, the real-time nature of 5G is particularly appealing for later living. “If someone has a heart attack or a stroke every second counts - being able to have devices that speak to each other seamlessly and that alert an ambulance or staff member instantly could literally save lives,” he says. Given the rural and suburban location of many retirement schemes, 5G may also outedge Wi-Fi 6, which is more suited for dense, urban locations. Beyond physical health, the same smart home tech could also be used to boost mental wellbeing in later living developments by facilitating long-distance human contact. But for Gaunt, tech should be an “enabler” rather than a replacement for genuine human interaction. Ensuring residents also feel a sense of independence, and that the technology is not forced upon them, is also critical, he says.

Purpose-built student accommodation: smart campuses

Just as we have smart cities, buildings and homes, universities will be the heart of ‘smart campuses’.  Like smart homes and buildings, smart campuses will join devices and people to enable new experiences and drive operational efficiencies.  One example is the University of Glasgow working in partnership with the Future Cities Catapult as part of its £800m investment into expanding its campus. The University library has installed a sensor network that monitors environmental occupancy while optimised timetables have been created using predictive analytics based on a student’s course choice.  For PBSA operators and investors, integrating their assets into the smart campus eco-system will be a key consideration going forward. This ties into the wider digital open source culture that will be created by 5G and wider connectivity, for instance at the UK’s universities, where more and more information will be shared freely and be easily accessible to all.  “I think it's going to enrich the learning experience and open up huge possibility – with seats of learning open access and part of that digital space, giving institutions, people and business, the opportunities to experiment, without the pressure of commercialization,” says UPP’s Percival. 5G will also support the growth of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) by enabling remote use of equipment and also augmented and virtual reality for learning. Given the increasingly globalised and competitive nature of high education, with high quality English language courses becoming more widespread, universities will have to become innovative in their approach if they want to continue to attract talent and ultimately money.

UPP, as the UK's leading provider of on-campus residential and academic accommodation infrastructure, will deal with many of the same management issues as the BTR, or indeed has already dealt with many of them. “What do students value the most in their accommodation? Residents' interaction with accommodation team members like the housekeeper or cleaner - that’s who helps makes their experience,” Percival continues. “People still want physical communities. What we are seeing is the on-going demand for physical interaction but with higher education institutions increasingly using tech to augment learning experiences and reach out into much wider networks and communities.”

While the potential for holographic video games or drone taxis is still unclear, one absolute certainty is that Western cities are all getting older. Britain has a greying population and there is growing recognition of the need for a dedicated later living sector as exists across the US, Australia and New Zealand. Not only can this free up existing housing stock by moving older couples rattling around in large family homes to denser developments, but it could allow the elderly to be catered to in a communal setting that allows them to maintain independence and agency, while potentially saying the NHS billions of pounds by helping prevent accidents. Smart home technology will play a key role here, such as body-worn sensors monitoring heart rate, blood pressure and internal temperature or ones placed around the home that use miniaturised radar technology and can check how frequently someone is using the bathroom, how long they are in there or if they are becoming less active overall. To Joe Gaunt, founder of health tech start-up Hero that is working with BTR landlord Moda Living and Legal & General’s Inspired Villages Group, the real-time nature of 5G is particularly appealing for later living. “If someone has a heart attack or a stroke every second counts - being able to have devices that speak to each other seamlessly and that alert an ambulance or staff member instantly could literally save lives,” he says. Given the rural and suburban location of many retirement schemes, 5G may also outedge Wi-Fi 6, which is more suited for dense, urban locations. Beyond physical health, the same smart home tech could also be used to boost mental wellbeing in later living developments by facilitating long-distance human contact. But for Gaunt, tech should be an “enabler” rather than a replacement for genuine human interaction. Ensuring residents also feel a sense of independence, and that the technology is not forced upon them, is also critical, he says.

Geo provides energy tech for smart homes, from smart thermostats to solar and energy monitors, that give residents insight into how their home uses energy, its environmental impact, and its costs. Residential energy use is presented to its users, demonstrating the impact of small changes on environmental impact of energy and its utility costs. Residents can control all of the energy storage through one user system interface, creating a dashboard ranging from electricity to heat. 5G will enable faster remote installation for these energy controls. Moley Robotics is a smart home tech provider: and the creators of the world’s first fully automated intelligent cooking robot. The robot ‘arms’ can learn recipes and complete physical meal prep actions such as chopping, stirring, and post-cooking clean up, bringing recipes from famous chefs and fine dining meal quality to your own home, as well as for home cooks to share their food with other users. 5G will boost this robotic chef’s capabilities even further, allowing residents to select and order their meals in real-time before they get home from work.   RoomMe provides home automation software for existing smart home devices based on room location. It uses a mobile app connected to occupancy sensors in rooms in the house, creating a bluetooth ‘curtain’ identifying who is in the room by detecting devices as they pass through doorways. RoomMe makes life more convenient for residents, as people’s homes adjust to create the best living experience for them by detecting their presence. 5G and more developed AI will progress these capabilities further, allowing users to customise their preferences at different times throughout the day and week. Jibo is a household tech provider, which produces an artificially intelligent social robot with advanced facial and voice recognition. The robot listens to user commands (learning up to 16 different users and providing a personalised experience for each interaction) and connects to other home tech, ranging from turning off the lights in different rooms of the house to playing music on demand. Jibo will affect the residential market by providing a virtual assistant and robotic companion for the home that changes the way residents interact with their home and its technology. 5G will improve the efficiency of Jibo’s artificial intelligence. Packetized Energy produces virtual battery software to make electricity flexible, clean, affordable and easy to use. The software uses cellular networks to coordinate the energy usage of domestic devices (and residents’ preferences), such as heating or ventilation systems and electric vehicle charges in homes. This will shake up the residential market by creating personalised homes with minimised energy bills and impact on the environment. 5G will allow residents and their home devices to get more efficient energy use, solving urban grid problems in real-time.