Imagine walking into a fully furnished apartment. On the kitchen countertop your lease is laid out. All utilities are included in the monthly rent and there’s little to no deposit. Signing the lease entails you’ll be able to terminate the lease from one day to the other. Next to the documents is a pen with your landlord’s company name on it. You take the pen and sign the lease. The apartment is yours. At least for now. Maybe tomorrow you’ll find something better. Until then, you unpack your stuff, fill the fridge and make your first meal in your new apartment. Welcome home.
What you just read is a typical example of instant rentals where a potential tenant enters a fully furnished apartment and right then and there have to decide whether or not they want to rent it. The duration of the lease might differ from apartment to apartment, but we predict that leases in the future will be more accommodating to people who wish to live more flexibly, i.e. people who do not necessarily wish to be tied down to one apartment for too long.
These same people will require flexibility and the ability to terminate a lease almost immediately, from one day to the next, as well as rent another apartment immediately after the previous one, giving them the service and flexibility previously only known from the hotel industry.
As our CEO, William Shaw, has previously predicted, we imagine the future of the rental industry will focus more and more on the service aspect of the industry. This includes a potential so-called concierge service where the service for renters will be somewhat similar to that of guests at a hotel. Thus, the shift from tenants to guests might happen in the near future by focusing more and more on hospitality and service in the rental industry. By offering great service, these ‘guests’ might be more inclined to rent from you.
"(...) the service for renters will be somewhat similar to that of guests at a hotel."
Something that’s also similar to the hotel industry will be how people will move quickly from one apartment to another, almost like a hotel room as the apartments will be fully-furnished and you’ll be able to move anytime you want, not having to worry about utility bills or deposits as everything will be included in the rent. This will enable people in the future to move from city to city whether they move for education, job, adventure or love.
Based on the continuous emphasis on sustainability all over the world, it would come as no surprise if the rental industry will continue to be affected by this. This includes utilising utilities such as water and power in the best way possible. For example sending excess power generated by your solar panels to other apartments so no power is lost. Thereby, by making use of all the power available so nothing is wasted, making it all that more sustainable.
Sustainability: Making use of all the power available
In the future, we also predict that there’ll be more emphasis on communities. More and more people choose to engage in co-living, thus creating a community for like-minded people. As we wrote about in our guide - which there’s a link to here - people who choose to join a community often have similar values and will presumably follow guidelines that ensure harmonious living.
Often, these people live a somewhat nomadic lifestyle and will presumably cherish how flexible this type of living is. We can just imagine that there’ll be plenty of households in the future that will embrace the co-living culture. Not only between young people but also for groups such as rainbow families, where two families are joined together under the same roof and who choose to live as one big family.
"(...) there’ll be plenty of households in the future that will embrace the co-living culture."
So what’s next? Maybe in the future digital nomads will use an app to swipe left and right when choosing an apartment, somewhat similar to how singles swipe for potential partners on dating apps. Maybe waitlists will be eliminated so you’ll be able to actually experience instant rentals as the one described in this post. Or perhaps services such as cleaning, gym memberships or laundry will be included in the rent, thus transforming the rental industry by borrowing from the service-minded hotel industry. The possibilities are endless but now that you have our take on it, what do you predict? Share your thoughts on our social media to let us know: Facebook & LinkedIn.