Homes

WHAT'S NEXT?: The number of smart homes is expected to grow further and by 2020 it is expected 46.2 million homes in the US and 44.9 million in Europe will be classed as smart homes. By 2022 there could be nearly 500 smart devices that can be connected to a smart home.

• [New] New housing projects in emerging economies are expected to provide new opportunities for construction globally, with around 270 million new homes needed in China and India alone by 2025 to meet the needs of growing population growth and urbanization trends.
• [New] Africa is home to seven of the world's ten fastest-growing economies, and economic growth across Africa is expected to continue to outperform other regions through at least the first half of the decade.
• [New] Annual growth in average house prices in England and Wales will remain in positive territory throughout the first quarter of the year.
• [New] Only in Italy (37%), the UK (43%) and Australia (42%) did fewer than half the respondents expect house prices to rise over the next year.
• [New] In reality, a real surge in house price inflation of the sort last seen in the mid-2000s seems improbable this year, because houses are still expensive relative to income and it is unlikely that Britain's departure from the EU this week will mean an end to Brexit uncertainty.
• [New] In England, 1.8 million homes are at risk of coastal flooding, and at least 2,000 properties are vulnerable to erosion over the next 50 years.
• [New] About 128 million homes will be converted into smart homes by the end of 2020 as smart devices, given as gifts, are ensconced of countless recipients.
• The smart home market is expected to grow 7.5% a year - hitting $262.63 billion in 2025.
• The UK has previously pledged to end use of fossil fuel heat in new build properties by 2025 as part of the future Homes Standard.
• According to the latest status report from the White House, the administration has eliminated $50.9 billion in regulatory costs since 2017: In the coming year, additional savings of $51.6 billion are forecast, including easing automotive fuel economy standards.
• The Australian Government will provide $10.0 million over four years from 2019-20 to create a dedicated network of Aged Care System Navigators to assist people and their families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds access the aged care system.
• Housing supply is low which is why prices are going up and experts in Dallas-Fort Worth predict them to keep rising in 2020.
• The UAE government plans to make Dubai the smartest city in the world by 2021, from smart transportation to smart housing to smart government.
• The stock of multifamily homes grows at a rate of 0.6% per year, while mobile home stocks decrease by 1.2% per year and are the only category EIA does not expect to grow.
• The UK Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has pencilled in house growth of 2% for 2020 - but it believes rents will increase at a faster rate of 2.5% as the rental sector struggles with a lack of housing supply.
• Africa will be home to half of the ten (10) fastest-growing economies in the world over the next five years.
• The National Association of Realtors had predicted that the national median existing-home price would rise to around $266,800 in 2019 (up 3.1% from 2018): Going into 2020, NAR predicts another rise of about $274,000 in the median home price.
• In Florida, losses from flooding could devalue homes by between 15 percent and 35 percent by 2050, which would devastate local tax revenue and make long-term borrowing unavailable.
• The economy still looks set for a pretty challenging 2020 and there will still be appreciable uncertainties, including on the UK-EU relationship front, meaning the upside for house prices in 2020 is likely to be limited.
• A group of industry stakeholders is urging the Trump administration to take action to ensure adequate supplies of fuel for freight and air travel and home heating in advance of a change in the type of fuel the maritime industry will use beginning next year.
• Next year will bring more interesting fruit and vegetable flours (like banana) into home pantries, with products such as cauliflower flour in bulk and baking aisles, rather than already baked into crusts and snack products.
• The World Bank predicts that 40 percent of the world's population will need new housing and basic infrastructure in the next 14 years.
• Given Orlando's projected population growth for the coming 5 years, it does not come as a surprise that the majority of respondents (a whopping 75%) recommend buying multi-family homes for investment.

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Last updated: 15 February 2020