Dive Brief:

• North American builder and developer Brookfield Residential announced that it will now offer Apple HomeKit standard in new communities, making it the first national homebuilder to so.

• Through Apple’s Siri interface, or the Apple Home app, HomeKit gives owners touch- and voice control of home lighting, climate and other systems. Brookfield’s offering will include Lutron’s Caseta lighting, Honeywell’s Lyric smart thermostat, Schlage’s Sense Smart deadbolt and Ubiquiti’s wireless access point.

• The HomeKit standard offering will kick off in Brookfield’s Delano neighborhood in Eastwood Village in Irvine, CA. 

Dive Insight:

HomeKit is the latest addition to Brookfield’s smart-home offerings. The builder added Amazon’s Alexa voice-control platform to some homes in Northern Virginia last year. The company previewed the technology at a model home featuring control of music, lighting, security cameras and shades.

Though Brookfield is the first to offer Apple HomeKit standard across the board, other builders are incorporating the technology. In November, KB Home enabled the HomeKit platform at two of its communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Earlier last year, Lennar indicated it may leverage the technology as well. 

Builders’ incorporation of voice-enabled technology meets increasing consumer demand for the ability to engage with the home through voice control. A survey released earlier this year by Coldwell Banker found that 72% of U.S. adults who have smart-home products want them to have voice capabilities. Fifty-eight percent of the millennials in the survey sample already have voice-control devices. 

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