4.9.25 – SSN – By Ken Showers – Las Vegas
After years of enduring a soft housing market with rising costs, material shortages and a lack of available inventory, the security industry is betting big on retrofitting multi-family units with access control and smart solutions.
During ISC West, Parks Associates released new research, “Modernizing Multifamily Housing: Retrofitting Access Control,” in partnership with Kwikset, that revealed nearly 72% of multi-family owners and operators have reported plans to upgrade existing smart building solutions in the next 12 months on at least one of the properties they own or operate.
“Retrofitting, especially access solutions, is gaining momentum in multi-family housing,” said Kristen Hanich, director of research, Parks Associates. “While many multi-family properties report that new construction is the bulk of their projects, demand for retrofitting is soaring, especially for solutions that can be deployed in place without requiring additional renovations.”
Among those looking to capitalize on the growing interest in access solutions for multi-family housing is ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions.
At ISC West this year, the division showcased its next-gen facial identification biometric solution iDFace Max, a bigger, faster model capable of retaining up to 100,000 faces in its database. The company also displayed a suite of door solutions that included smart dead bolts with customizable styles to give entrances a less utilitarian feel.
ASSA ABLOY has also seen success in the package theft mitigation market. The company’s Luxer One smart package locker
was originally a solution for dry cleaning drop off, but it shifted gears when it noticed increasing package volume for multi-family units.
“Since then, we’ve continued to innovate on the product in multiple ways,” the representative said. “We have now 400 million deliveries in this space. We’re in about 12,000 properties across the United States and Canada. We’re really taking the package challenge off the hands of the property teams.”