One of the themes covered in the LaSalle Mid-Year ISA Update 2018 is the continuing dominance of tech industries in urban economies, the capital markets and also the real estate markets. The secular trends of finance can be divided into two broad domains: wealth management and financial transactions, according to LaSalle Investment Management’s midyear report. Both domains are adopting new technologies at a blistering pace.
On the transaction side, technology is having a huge impact on the way that financial institutions organize data for privacy, for speed and for efficiency. The rise of blockchain technology has created an ever-increasing demand for data centers, computing power, and has led to a decentralized approach for data storage/retrieval based on the principle of cloud computing and widely distributed ledgers, according to the report.
Real estate sits several steps removed from the direct impact of the blockchain revolution. Derivative impacts include a lessening of demand for “back-office” space housing financial clearing/ accounting functions and a rising demand for high-speed connectivity in buildings and for highly-specialized data centers.
LaSalle notes the intersection of fin-tech and prop-tech start-ups has been accelerated by the $6 billion in growth capital provided to firms that bring new technologies to real estate.
To read the full report, click here.
