Implementing innovation in real estate development : co-living as an innovative product

Abstract

The real estate industry is very conservative and risk averse, yet innovation is critical to its long term viability. While innovation does occur in real estate development, it is often discouraged and not the standard approach. This thesis focuses on understanding the motivations and obstacles facing real estate developers who decide to pursue innovative products, processes and systems. The study explores the challenges of developing co-living, a recent innovative real estate product in order to understand why this product is taking off across the country, and how it has been implemented in Boston and New York City. Insight into the innovation processes are derived from site visits and multiple interviews with professionals from different sectors of real estate: developers, consultants and regulatory authorities. The thesis concludes by describing five principles of innovative real estate development, relating to: Market Demand, Vision, Adoption, External Forces and X-Factors. While these principles are derived from experience in creating co-living projects, they are illustrative and important for the innovation process in all types of real estate products.