A WELL PLACED FUTURE
Most people see our industry failing in the face of wicked problems like inflation, labour productivity, government policy, etc. That’s as far as they can see. Yet we’re now at the point where we know what’s happening, and what’s coming, through the lens of the future. That view sees many nascent ideas that are capable of superseding the status quo. This perspective focuses not on breakdown but on progress emerging all around us
The future of condo sales & marketing. (10 min) We opened Outpost in Port Moody to the public on June 11, 2022. Outpost is a venue that serves as a community space and is not operated as a typical sales gallery. We integrated a licensed cafe and designed unexpected, memorable moments throughout, including retail pop-ups and public artwork. Since that time over 150,000 guests have visited the cafe and sales gallery. Our cafe operator, Timbertrain has outperformed the typical Starbucks in the region. We successfully pre-sold two wood frame projects out of the space. Looking ahead, we are launching two new concepts in Surrey and Coquitlam Centre and expect to host ~5 million guests over the next decade, selling through multiple tower projects.
The future of flexible living. (10 min) The next generation of working professionals want to live on their terms. As a result, we expect decreasing market share for the traditional 12-month lease. The serviced apartment market has been growing in recent years, driven by the increasing demand for flexible and affordable accommodation options. Presently, we can quantify market demand for serviced apartments at select properties in major American cities at ~15% of inventory and project a 20% NOI lift. As practitioners in this ‘flex’ business model, we’re developing unique, high-quality serviced residential offerings that command premium rents. In this space, we are most excited about innovations that directly drive NOI. Our work with Rogers leadership on a new multifamily managed service model is a foundational step in growing ancillary revenue and driving NOI.
The future of work. (10 min) Sooner than later, AI Agents will use software applications more often than humans. When agents become primary users, applications compete purely on effectiveness. Think of the difference between the applications you use in your day-to-day (built for human information processing) and an API (built for machine consumption). The future of software looks more like an API ecosystem than the consumer app market. Companies like Stripe show what adaptation looks like. While maintaining their human interfaces, they've built parallel infrastructure specifically for AI consumption. Businesses will need to follow, effectively maintaining two IT systems: their human-facing applications and an agent-oriented version to take on more and more task automation. At Divisin.ai, through funding from the National Research Council of Canada, we’ve built end-to-end Agentic systems on top of a real estate knowledge base.
