• Balancing competing demands in experience delivery - The top-ranked experience drivers are safety and convenience, together with uniqueness and fun, highlighting the growing challenges of delivering often competing demands.

• Personalization focuses on welcoming environments, human interaction and lifestyle factors - Growing demand for personalization in real estate requires developers and occupiers to integrate lifestyle factors, branding, technology and interactions for hospitality inspired spaces that are more personal and memorable.

• Wellness and ethical sourcing are leading sustainability preferences - Sustainability is of growing importance, but people value tangible sustainability factors the most, prioritizing health and wellness, green spaces and ethical sourcing.
  

• People seek AI and technology that enhances, rather than distracts, from experience - AI and technology integration are seen as enablers for improved urban living and day-to-day activity, but consumers still prioritize in-person interactions.
  
  

Expectations of ‘experience’ in the built environment continue to evolve as a central value driver for investments. Experience factors in real estate are interconnected and multifaceted, encompassing not just the quality and atmosphere of spaces, but how well interactions and events take place within them. JLL’s 2025 Experience Matters research draws from data collected from 12,000 respondents across 19 markets and 64 cities to provide insights into priorities and opportunities for the real estate sector.

Experience factors are a key component in development strategies focused on achieving premium rental values and enhanced returns on investments. For corporate occupiers, experience-led design can support talent attraction, increased footfall and spend, and consumer and employee satisfaction. As this becomes more commonplace, the expectations on existing assets are also rising, with experience emerging as a key factor in obsolescence risks.

Globally, expectations are high. Two-thirds of people globally expect the places and spaces where they live, work and play, to provide more enjoyment, diverse activities, and add value to the time they spend there. Consumer willingness to pay premiums for high-quality experiences has also grown, from 65% in 2024 to 69% in 2025, with income and generational factors indicating this will continue.

Family-friendly environments rank higher in 2025 than 2024, with greater focus on inclusive spaces and provision of spaces for all generations. Traditional differentiators like exclusivity, technology and social media appeal have declined in importance from 2024 to 2025, suggesting that consumers increasingly value practical convenience, event and activity-based experiences and holistic wellbeing over status-driven features .

Despite consumers’ preference for multi-activity and mixed-use developments, delivering high-quality and specific experiences across varied asset classes, or a combination of these, can be a challenge at any scale of development. 

The factors which drive return visits can vary significantly, as consumers prioritize relaxing atmospheres at restaurants while emphasizing the need for distinct design and excitement in cultural spaces. And while family-friendly environments and unique experiences are common across typologies, retail demands personalization whereas entertainment requires fun and excitement balanced with relaxation. 

In response to these increasingly complex requirements, the necessity for flexibility and variety in buildings and developments is becoming more and more important.

Taking into account flexibility requirements and constraints at both design and operational stages is vital (including flexible building systems and infrastructure), with innovative approaches to modular fit-outs and flexible leasing strategies being some potential strategies .

Technology is one of the most significant drivers of change for real estate and is increasingly an integral part of how people interact with places and spaces. The use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in buildings is now also accelerating technology integration in buildings. Emerging AI solutions are seen as a growing opportunity for developers and occupiers to automate building systems and improve efficiency and energy performance. However, wider trends and solutions for AI and technology for accessing information, booking apps and AR (Augmented Reality) tools is changing the role of technology in retail, entertainment venues or workplaces, with a knock-on impact for people’s experience in these spaces. 

Global sentiment towards technology and its role in cities and buildings is broadly positive, with greater support for integrated urban solutions than technology within individual spaces. However, end-users prefer technology to be seamlessly integrated to support their day-to-day living and experiences and have more mixed views on the value of direct interfaces with technology such as automated or AI info kiosks, VR (Virtual Reality) or booking apps. As an emerging technology, sentiment towards AI is lower, with many end-users unsure of how AI will create value for the places and spaces where they live, work and visit.