Live Streaming and Printed Houses: Can Technology Solve Housing?

With Rishi Sunak reportedly considering a return to the Help to Buy scheme, some analysts are already suggesting that this isn’t the solution the UK needs. Therefore, it’s a good moment to consider whether technology could be used to solve the country’s housing issues, and in what capacity.

Work from Home and Live Streaming to Free Up Physical Properties

2022 saw more workers returning to their traditional workplaces after a spell of working from home, but surveys show a strong desire for the latter or for a hybrid model to combine the two options. This would allow the worker to achieve a better work-life balance but could it also free up properties in prime locations to be turned into housing?

There’s no doubt that cloud storage and team conferencing software like Zoom are among the best types of technology that make this an option to consider.

We can also see how live streaming has affected one industry in particular by looking at live blackjack online on the Paddy Power site. Human dealers present the game from a studio setting, with players joining the table virtually. Other casino options such as roulette and dice games can also be played in this manner, giving players a variety of ways to engage without leaving home and without the need for massive, physical casinos either, helping to reduce the overhead costs they entail for developers.

Live streaming has also been used in the medical industry, allowing doctors and nurses to assess patients virtually. It’s easy to imagine how live streaming and working from home could mesh together to free up physical working spaces for other reasons too.

This study from the University of Sheffield shows how working from home shifts the country’s economic activities away from the major cities, and this would need to be studied in more depth to produce an overall plan to help the housing market without damaging the economy in other vital areas.

AI, Innovative Financing Schemes, and Other Technological Options

Several other fascinating uses of technology can be seen across Europe and further afield. For example, the start-up Rive, in Finland, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up the process of buying and selling homes. In Spain, Clickalia promises homeowners in Madrid that they’ll sell their property in 24 hours or else the service will buy it off them in seven days. Other companies use AI to come up with innovative financing solutions such as buying the property and allowing the client to rent it until they’re able to afford the purchase price.

It seems possible that AI and machine learning could be used to help design low-cost, sustainable housing that helps to kick-start the British housing market. Housing is a concern on a global scale, and this is why we’re seeing different attempts across the planet to address this issue and create economical solutions.

For example, 3D printing is a fast and highly effective way of creating badly-needed new homes at a low cost. This approach is being used just outside of Austin in Texas, where the Danish architecture studio BIG has teamed up with the American construction technology company ICON to create 100 homes in this way. This will be the world’s biggest 3D-printed housing community but we can see similar plans in other places such as China and Ecuador.

The advances we’ve seen in several areas of technology in recent years could help boost the UK’s housing market if applied in the right way. With no simple, ready-made solution on the cards, checking out each of these ideas appears to be a worthwhile endeavour.