Slowly but surely the rise of 3D-printing is merging into the real estate space and for myself at least it’s glimpse into the future. Stunning examples of computer generated housing products are becoming more and more frequent and what started out as a village is rapidly becoming a town and soon a city.

Presently most of the leading examples are in small fairly linear structures that fall into the tiny home category on the lifestyle design shows on television. There are excellent examples of both traditional materials like wood, glass and metal being honed into a finished product.

Even more interesting is the movement towards alternative materials. Certainly those cutting edge designs using paper, cardboard and similar materials might not have a lasting effect but it’s a start. Remember how far and fast we’ve gone with smartphones, computers and other digital technologies and this is no different.

Recyclable materials or repurposed elements like wood, plastic or others can easily be reshaped, altered or re-invented for use in home building. Pre-fab has been with us for quite sometime but the idea of integrating robotics to generate lower-cost structures and taking out the human error process in small, medium and large architecture is attractive. Less defects and constraining cost over-runs.

Property developers understand the metrics of saving time when building and also the opportunity of delivering projects early to drive cash flow and these are two of the highlighted benefits from 3D integration.

Labor and materials costs are the two major variable expenses for real estate products and any way to improve delivery goes straight to the bottom line.

The automotive industry has been using similar working methodology for decades and now it’s high time the property sector followed suit with a kick in the pants from emerging 3D-printing. Like all tech, costs are already rapidly coming down and it’s likely in the not too distant future that across Asia more adoption will follow from West to East.

In China WinSun Decoration Design Engineering has a track-record for both large-scale apartments and single detached homes and more are following in their footsteps. Expect 3D to emerging in real estate in a big way over next five years.