Learn what Urban Planning has to do with Real Estate!

Do you love travelling and exploring new places?

Then thank an urban planning officer because the reason you can navigate any new city with ease is due to their planning efforts. The gigantic buildings, snaking roads, and landmark structures don’t just materialize on their own but are the hard work and result of years of urban planning and development.

Planning, by definition, focuses on the future goals and aspirations of a society.

Urban Planning jobs enhance the use of the existing environment. But it’s more complicated than you can imagine. Urban planners require a bachelor’s or master’s degree in planning, public policy, and environmental science from accredited universities, along with a deep understanding of how cities have been working for ages, what the people living there want and how to make plans turn into a feasible reality. This is because becoming an urban planner means taking on projects carrying humongous responsibilities. They serve as advocates for the community and must, therefore keep their best interests in mind.

It is no news that more than half of the world’s population resides in urban areas today. This makes adequate housing and commercial spaces in neighbourhoods, renewing economically depressed areas in society, and planning for future population growth a necessity.

To be ahead in the fierce real estate race, urban planning is bound to be inseparable from real estate development. It is only by linking these two broad industries can a better-planned city be constructed. Thus, giving us a substantial overlap into the working of both the real estate industry and urban planning.

So even when clients are looking for a ready-made home, certain lessons from urban planning can be suitably applied. When a client loves a city’s heritage, you’re sure to find a piece or two in their house, or let’s say they want you to suggest some great outdoor spaces, they’re likely to rely on you to know where the air is clean and the grass is green.

As a real estate agent, teaming up with a town planner means dealing with a whole range of cultures, world views, and backgrounds.

Urban planning attracts people with vision and curiosity to create cultural shifts in the living environment, which is no different from what the real estate industry does.

What is the Role of an Urban Planner?

An urban planner guides the development process in a city while taking into account its public and environmental well-being. Their mission must be guided by providing a convenient, peaceful, and efficient place to live and work.

In addition to this, it is also important to provide a sustainable and eco-friendly environment where generations can thrive with reduced risk of disasters.

Certain tasks that fall under the expertise of urban planners include but are not limited to:

Ensuring affordable housing and living arrangements
Managing the number of single and multi-family home accommodations in a given region/neighborhood.
Providing adequate sewage and water services for any given neighborhood.
Planning the construction of new buildings
Planning green spaces, community parks, and other facilities.
Implementing transportation plans that are in accordance with the community’s needs.
Reviewing site plans and proposals
Maintaining adherence to the laws of different regions.

Three Key Factors to Consider While Developing a Region

Before adding or renovating any new space, pay attention to what its environment says (Economic, Social and Physical)

Economic Considerations

The number and types of businesses dominate the layout of any city. Thus, it is important for urban planning and development to foster the role of primary participants such as local businesses, universities, and also tourism-related activities. At the same time, urban planners should give development opportunities to small-scale companies and sustain the creative works of artisans to keep the cultural roots alive.

The first step towards this is to create an actionable master plan that best meets the goals of a city in understanding its socioeconomic levels and employments rates along with economic trends in that region.

Social Considerations

The point of focus here should be to equally distribute the local resources amongst the residents. When economic factors are brought to the forefront, social factors often take a backseat and go unrecognized. It is quite evident in less developed countries where the population is large and resources are scarcely spread. One good example is the Mumbai city of India where more than fifty percent of its population lives in slums, cut off from many essential resources required to live a healthy and sustainable life.

This is one of the reasons why India lags in its human resource index from most of its western counterparts. An unhealthy and unbalanced social life can amount to massive and widespread illness among adults. Therefore, it is the sole responsibility of urban planners to design systems that are better at handling wealth distributions and available resources.

Physical Environment Considerations

Lastly, but very importantly, the physical environment shouldn’t go unaccounted for, in modern development. This includes factors such as location and proximity to resources, overall climatic patterns, and effects of climatic conditions on irrigation systems. Certain microelements such as strong winds may often go unnoticed by real estate agents or home buyers but they not only affect the ground level environments but also negatively impact the terraces and balconies of houses. Urban planners are skilled in paying attention to these details.

During the designing or renovation process, it is crucial to take into account the frequency of weather conditions such as snow, rain, and strong winds. It is important to evaluate these dynamic variables and measure their ferocity to build adequate structures that can withstand extreme conditions.

Try and create designs plans for tomorrow rather than being stuck in the present. See what social, economic, and environmental issues you can solve and how your urban planning can give shape to the needs and opportunities of tomorrow.

In the End

It is essential to keep a more holistic view in mind taking into account the social, economic, and environmental elements which guarantee citizens greater well-being and satisfaction in living a purposeful life. Participatory planning is a way of involving the residents of a city to have an active say in their city’s plans to improve public awareness surrounding the current plans.

Urban planning has gained recognition in India because the country is fast urbanizing. Decisions taken by urban planners and real estate developers can have large-scale effects on the property prices which in turn decides the living experience of people and their desirability to invest in real estate.

If you are inspired to read more about the working of real estate industries, gain some actionable tips, or read the latest industry news, do check out our other blogs on The Real Talks platform.

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