Digital Home Challenges – Idealista / news

The house concept turns up. The pandemic has reinforced the importance of every space in the home – from the inside out. The Comfort, safety and energy efficiency to the top of the priorities, resulting in increased demand for home automation solutions In the past two years. But there is still only about 1% of smart homes in Portugal. There are many challenges that home automation sector face in the country. The idealists/news went on to discover people who work with professionals in the sector.

Concerning home automation“Almost nothing has been done” in Portugal, according to Alfredo Valente, CEO and Managing Director of iad Portugal. And Luis Pinto advances that today there is only 1-2% of Smart homes in Portugal. “If we were to liquidate robotic homes minimally, we would be talking about less than 1%,” says the owner of IOLine, a manufacturer of home automation technology Mordomus, which has been on the market for about 20 years.

Today, there is a “need for people to make it More efficient and more comfortable homes, That is, the combination of maximum comfort and minimum consumption and expenses. And I think the full range of possibilities that 5G brings us will raise the issue of automation, robots And home automation is on the table in the near future,” Alfredo Valente explains.

Families’ interest home automation solutions It has been increasing in recent years. Because today home automation solutions The simplest one can start with less than 2,000 euros and bring several Benefits starting from energy savings, As explained by market experts in it Article – Commodity. But there is much more to be done. The home automation sector Today he faces many challenges that prevent him from growing at a rapid pace.

“The integration of technology into the equipment we use daily is growing according to interests, but at home it should be. And it is growing very slowly in this respect.” Luis Pinto, from Mordomus

Current challenges for the home automation sector in Portugal

• Home automation didn’t know how to position itself when it came to the market

There is a ghost from the past that still haunts the works of the present. It boils down to this, according to Luís Pinto: “Home automation hit the market and it didn’t know how to position itself.” “The first products that reached Portugal, Europe and the world, were called home automationThey were products that had it all wrong and everything was going wrong,” the Mordomus owner explains:

• It was very expensive: about 20, 30 or 40 thousand euros;

• Wrong product philosophy: dependence on the supplier of the product;

• Cost effective home automation He was not seen.

Now the challenge is precisely to figure out how to change its position, a strategy that from the outset involves bringing it to market Home automation solutions at competitive prices Which families can afford. Nowadays, “home automation cannot be as expensive as it is,” warns Luis Pinto, explaining that home automation solution It should be between 1-2% of the price of the house, that is, the cost of the house 100 thousand euros should be between 1000 and 2000 euros.

“One The simplest home automation solution It can start at 1,800 euros and has no upper limit,” explains Hato Viest, CEO of Enancer Electrónica, a Braga-based company that only created home automation technology in smart buildings in 2008.

In addition, positioning also depends on Providing automated solutions Which is now more comprehensive and not just limited to light. “With home automation, I have to Come home and rule everything: I should have the TV, the watering, absolutely everything in the house,” promotes the owner of Mordomus, based in Gouveia.

• Low demand for home automation by real estate developers

. method home automation It positioned itself in the market initially and still feels amongst many real estate players. At the moment, there are still a few real estate development that seeks to incorporate these solutions into the homes it promotes, but there are already examples like these smart homes in the north of the country.

“The demand is there, but it’s not that high. We have a lot more demand from end customers than from real estate agencies,” said Filigrio Pantaleo, Sales Department and Field Application Engineer at Enancer Electrónica. Luis Pinto, from Mordomus, also revealed that “very few” promoters are looking for these solutions.

Both consider the fact that these solutions add a layer to Final price of the house It is one of the main obstacles to investment. “The real estate developer Try to get one house price As much as possible, so if we use technology, the price will not go down, it will go up. In fact, we are placing a file Added value in the apartmentbut it also depends on the sector, where the middle to high segment is more open to these solutions”, explains Filigrio Pantaleo. But the point is that real estate developers still do not see smart homes As an added value, only representative adds.

There is another factor pointed out by Luis Pinto: real estate development Still look at there Home automation at home It’s “just another problem”. This is because they “don’t want after-sales service”, which from the point of view of the person responsible for Mordomus is “wrong”. “It is a situational issue and this issue really needs to be addressed,” he asserts.

• Lack of new construction: obsolete housing stock

On the other hand, home automation does not reach families either because “there is a massive shortage of new construction”, which may delay, for Alfredo Valenti, the further penetration of technological innovations into the market.

This is because inReal estate rehabilitation Age is very difficult to take experience Robotics and home automation to the fullest extent”, explains the general manager of iad in an interview with Ideal/News. But it is possible. In the existing home, the introduction of home automation involves laying communication cables in existing pipes or installing wireless solutions.

Moreover, in the context of where it is house prices It is growing and developing much more than family incomethe same price can act as a brake on families to offer these solutions in new homes. “I’m also afraid that price pressures will push people to put something aside, and then what can be left out is innovation and technologyAlfredo Valente concludes.

• A short development of business from home

“The house is not Work area Advanced “From a technological point of view, as in the automotive sector, which is characterized by its advanced technologies, begins with the explanation of Luis Pinto. Why?” You home sellers did not develop. I think architects know nothing about homes. I think the builders know almost nothing about houses. I think every home industry She has no idea what a well-run business is, like cars. There is absolutely no care in this aspect. [tecnologia] Regarding the houses, ”says the responsible for Mardomos.

This happens, in his opinion, because there is no real teamwork in it building a house, as, for example, in the automotive sector. In dwelling development “We have a completely reclusive individual who is interested in electrical engineering, and he is electrician; We have an individual who cares only and exclusively about the aspects of things that are Architect; We have another person worried about whether or not the house will collapse, and it is building a house (even if you do not strictly comply with the architect’s instructions); We have an individual who drills holes to put a tube that is Plumber (Who does not care about electrical wires); That is, while there is a cohesive team in the automotive sector, in building a house There are many isolated teams that look almost like each other’s enemies – and often are,” he explains.

To solve this problem, the ideal would be to have a character responsible for bridging the gap between the different disciplines of Building or rehabilitating a house. “And there is this construction manager Often this person is headed by the architect or is a civil engineer, so he does not see the house enough. The point is that the architect has already been poisoned by a disease called architecture, which is very necessary, but not complete at home”, says Luis Pinto, noting that often home work environment It is not taken into account and it is important to have a functional home adapted to the needs of the family.

• The advantages of home automation are not reaching families

Families don’t miss what they don’t know. “People don’t think about modernizing technology and home monitoring Because they are so used to treating the house like that,” explains Hato Feist, from Only, who asserts that “the key technology is already over 100 years old and that is unacceptable.”

In terms of real estate brokerage, Alfredo Valente supposes that he feels “above all that people are looking for more comfort, but we don’t feel that people are still sufficiently informed about home automation capabilities”, he says in an interview. “We are a poor country, where people are still looking for a little more basic solutions than comfort. But it is very important to be there democratization of solutionsAbove all, people can pay, this is the main concern. And my fear, in fact, is that people in the near future may not be able to pay what we need to give them at home,” explains the person in charge of the iad.

• The government should set an example

So the future passes through Awareness of home automation. This must happen within the family and also in the training of the professionals themselves who are involved in the process.building a house , Luis Pinto thought. In addition, it also goes by the example of the government itself.

“As long as this is not more widespread, as long as we do not have automated homesManufactured by the country itself – making it more “automatic” effective The average number of homes most of us live in wouldn’t be. We should always start the search from below,” explains the person in charge of Mordomus.