Planet Smart City, the UK-headquartered global leader in smart affordable housing, announced its support for the United Nations’ newly-launched flagship programme ‘People-focused Smart Cities.’ Having participated at the World Urban Forum, reinforcing the UAE’s efforts to achieve the shared global vision of eradicating poverty and delivering sustainable development, the proptech company has formed a scientific committee and will invest 10% of its current revenues in the next three years in research to pioneer a new approach in delivering affordable housing worldwide – utilising technological innovations to serve people, improve public services and working conditions.

Challenges of unsafe and overcrowded housing, which affect more than 1.6 billion people around the world, were discussed last week as Planet Smart City brought together leading global experts and organised an engaging panel discussion titled ‘Places that matter: how affordable neighbourhoods can be smart and innovative, creating communities that improve the quality of life of residents.’ Delegates contributed on the role of affordable housing and smart cities, with discussions on how these two areas can be combined to support sustainable urbanization; as well as how private real estate stakeholders can actively address the Sustainable Developments Goals and the New Urban Agenda.

The event featured contributions from Planet’s newly-established Scientific Committee, including: Mohamed El Sioufi, currently professor at Monash University, who spent almost two decades with UN HABITAT advising on settlements policy around the world; Francesca De Filippi, Director of the Research Centre on Habitat in the Global South (CRD-PVS) at Politecnico di Torino; Francesca Medda, director of University College London’s Institute of Finance and Technology, who specialises in sustainable investment and urban infrastructure financing.

Daniele Russolillo, Planet’s COO and Deputy Global CEO, moderated the event and was joined by Alan Marcus, the company’s Chief Digital Strategy Officer and former head of technology, media and digital at the World Economic Forum, who shared their experience of how to enhance community life in affordable neighbourhoods through urban planning, services, social innovation programmes and technology.

In line with Planet’s growth plans, the company announced a major expansion of its global reach at the Forum with the launch of its advisory services in India. Based in Pune, it will work with third party real estate developers and government agencies to provide its unique offer for integrating smart solutions in the urban environment. The move comes after a partnership has been agreed between Planet and Kolte-Patil infra-tech, a Kolte-Patil Group company.