A whitepaper from Travis Perkins Managed Services argues that smart home technology offers housing associations a real return on investment by reducing future maintenance costs.
The report was produced following consultation with Google Nest, Hive, Switchee and Oakleaf Commercial Services. The latter is part of the Community Housing Group and provides maintenance services to a number of housing associations.
It explores how technology is developing so that social housing providers can monitor building services and plan maintenance rather than react to emergency call outs. At the same time smart technology can enhance tenant’s well-being and help combat crucial issues within the sector such as fuel poverty.
Antony Poulton, Regional Director from Travis Perkins Managed Services commented: “We believe that smart home technology is reaching a tipping point where the cost of intelligent devices is falling and the benefits to both social landlords and tenants is rising.”
The whitepaper also tackles the issues facing wider adoption of the technology such as Internet availability in properties, data privacy issues, cost and the development of infrastructure, such as information hubs that will make data monitoring easier to action for social housing landlords.
Antony continued: “While there are issues in adopting smart home technology in social housing, they are not insurmountable. There are a number of technology providers focussing on such issues and some trailblazing organisations such as Oakleaf Commercial services who are beginning to use the technology and profit from its benefits in this sector.”
The Travis Perkins Managed Services whitepaper “The Role of Smart Home Technology in Social Housing” is available for download from www.tpmanagedservices.co.uk/toolkit/
