Thoughts, Ideas, Actions for 2026… and Beyond. Part 1

16 Emerging CRE Tech Trends

The end of the year is a good time to look at ‘Pointers’ - ideas, thoughts, trends worth thinking about during the brief decompression over Christmas. This year, I want to use that time to make a case: the next decade will see real estate finally become what it’s always pretended to be - an industry that makes decisions based on evidence rather than intuition.

So in the next three newsletters I’m going to lay out how this transformation will unfold.

First, I’m going to look at ’16 Emerging CRE Tech Trends’ - highlighting the move towards a more data-centric, transparent and ‘assurable’ industry - categorised by immediate, mid-term, and longer-term impact.

Then I will address ’10 Foundational Themes’ - capturing the fundamental shifts required for the next decade, and defining the high-level competitive landscape.

And finally, I will address ‘Personal and Organisational Transformation’ - the required shift in skills, governance, and mindset, needed to provide us, as individuals, with the “how” for navigating these choppy waters.

So, here we go: 16 Emerging CRE Tech Trends.

You’ll notice some trends span multiple timeframes. The technology for most of these exists now; what varies is adoption. Real estate’s deep institutional inertia - fragmented ownership, long asset cycles, misaligned incentives - will slow the pace. But the direction is locked in. All of this will materialise within ten years, which means within the working life of most people reading this.

Timeline: Now – 2 Years (Already in Play/High Impact)

1. Operational Evidence Beats EPCs
   Due diligence is shifting from static design certificates to verified in-use performance - 12-month utility logs, NABERS-style ratings, actual emissions. Buyers increasingly demand this data; smart sellers are leading with it rather than waiting to be asked. The calculation is simple: transparency signals confidence, opacity signals risk. Buildings with strong, verifiable performance will trade faster and tighter; those without face longer marketing periods and wider discounts.
   
   

2. Provenance-Verified Documents Collapse Audit Time
   When key transaction files - leases, BMS logs, utility records - can be verified as unaltered since creation, the audit burden shrinks dramatically. Buyers and their advisors currently spend weeks validating document authenticity; tamper-evident digital signatures at the point of origin could cut that to days, shortening sales cycles by 10-20%.
   
   

3. Agentic FM Triage Cuts Cycle Time
   AI agents can now autonomously handle routine facilities requests - diagnosing issues, dispatching contractors, ordering parts - provided they operate within defined spending limits. A blocked drain or faulty access reader gets resolved without human intervention; anything above the threshold escalates. Early deployments show 20-30% productivity gains for FM teams and faster resolution for occupiers. The governance model matters more than the technology: get the caps and escalation rules right, and the scope expands naturally over time.
   
   This is the first step in a progression toward fully agent-orchestrated operations (see #8 and #13).
   
   

4. Passkeys, Not Passwords, Drive Usage
   Real estate has historically treated tenant apps as amenity theatre - nice to have, rarely used. But as flex space and service-led leasing grow, app engagement becomes a revenue line. Passkeys (biometrics, device PINs) eliminate the single biggest barrier to habitual use: the login. Every forgotten password is abandoned revenue - booking fees, service charges, retail commissions. The technology is mature; the question is whether operators recognise that UX details now have P&L consequences.
   
   

5. Single-Loop Controls Optimisation
   Targeting one major plant system - chiller, AHU, cooling tower - for AI-driven optimisation is the lowest-risk entry point to building intelligence. Deployments routinely deliver 12-15% energy savings with sub-1-year payback. The industry knows this low-hanging fruit exists; the puzzle is why so few have picked it.
   
   

6. Lease Intelligence Crosses the Trust Threshold
   AI-driven lease extraction has existed for years; what’s changing is auditability. Tools that provide clause-level source citations are finally trusted by lawyers and auditors, collapsing review time from days to hours. The implication: abstraction as a standalone service is commoditised. The value migrates to integration - connecting extracted terms directly into transaction workflows, pricing models, and due diligence systems.
   
   

7. Privacy-Preserving Occupancy Becomes the Default
   The question is no longer cameras versus sensors, it’s identifiable data versus anonymised insight. Some solutions now extract metadata from existing camera networks while discarding footage entirely; others use thermal or radar sensors that never capture identifiable data in the first place. Both approaches satisfy GDPR requirements and tenant expectations. The camera-or-sensor debate is a distraction; the real shift is that occupancy intelligence is now achievable without privacy liability. The strategic question becomes what you do with ubiquitous, anonymised movement data: dynamic pricing, automated controls, utilisation-based lease terms. Privacy-by-design approaches bypass the common HR veto, removing the main internal blocker to adoption.
   
   
   Timeline: Now – Mid-Term (2–5 Years)
   
   

8. Budget-Bounded Agents Run PM and Procurement
   AI agents move from reactive triage to proactive management, anticipating maintenance needs, managing supplier relationships, handling tenant requests end-to-end. The enabling constraint is financial: agents operate within pre-approved spending thresholds, escalating only what exceeds their authority. This is the natural extension of today’s triage deployments with expanded scope and higher caps. The PM team shifts from processing transactions to setting parameters and handling exceptions.
   
   

9. AI Workpapers Become Audit-Ready
   The same provenance logic applies to AI-generated analysis. Valuations, cash flow forecasts, and risk assessments produced by AI will carry embedded records of inputs, model version, and output integrity. Auditors and risk managers increasingly expect this, not as regulatory box-ticking, but as the threshold for trusting AI outputs in board decisions and transaction sign-offs. “Assurable automation“ becomes the baseline, not the differentiator.
   
   

10. Live Data Feeds Enter the Virtual Data Room
    VDRs have always been static repositories: documents uploaded, downloaded, reviewed. The emerging model connects live API feeds directly into due diligence: real-time occupancy, energy consumption, HVAC performance, updated continuously rather than captured at a point in time. Buyers underwrite against current reality, not stale snapshots. For sellers, verified live performance data reduces uncertainty discounts and shortens negotiation cycles. The VDR becomes a window into the building, not a filing cabinet.
    
    

11. Optimisation Becomes a CapEx Line-Item
    Plant upgrades have historically been specced, installed, and commissioned, with optimisation treated as a separate, discretionary afterthought. That sequencing is reversing. Forward-thinking owners are building optimisation software and services into capital budgets from the outset, tied to M&V contracts that guarantee savings or forfeit fees. The risk shifts from owner to vendor; the savings become bankable rather than aspirational. Once single-loop optimisation (#5) proves ROI, this becomes the standard model for every major plant investment.
    
    

12. Converged Access Unifies the User Graph
    Buildings currently host a chaotic mix of employees, flex members, contractors, and delivery drivers, each managed through isolated systems that fail to communicate. This fragmentation has shifted from an administrative nuisance to an acute security vulnerability. While converged platforms exist, adoption has lagged behind capability. The tipping point arrives not via technology vendors, but through insurers and corporate tenants refusing to accept the liability of “blind spots” in building access.
    
    
    Timeline: Now – Longer-Term (5–10 Years)
    
    

13. Agent-Orchestrated O&M Becomes the Default
    The progression from triage (#3) to budget-bounded management (#8) reaches its logical conclusion: AI agents orchestrate routine O&M end-to-end. They schedule preventive maintenance, dispatch contractors, adjust sequences based on occupancy and conditions, reorder consumables, all within parameters set by humans. The FM team’s role shifts fundamentally: less task execution, more parameter-setting, exception handling, and vendor strategy. Labour cost reductions of 50% or more are plausible, though the pace depends on building complexity, data readiness, and organisational appetite for change.
    
    

14. Live Operational Data Flows into Valuations
    Static annual appraisals based on comparable evidence are giving way to dynamic models fed by live operational data: occupancy rates, actual energy costs, rent collection, maintenance spend. The technology exists now; the shift is institutional. As valuation standards bodies and lenders grow comfortable with real-time inputs, appraisals become continuous rather than episodic. For REITs and large portfolio owners, this means more accurate NAV reporting; for transaction parties, faster price discovery and narrower bid-ask spreads.
    
    

1. Building-Level Performance Data Goes Public
   Portfolio-level disclosure is becoming mandatory; the next frontier is building-level public data. Governments are moving toward requiring operational performance, energy use, emissions, potentially occupancy, to be disclosed per asset and publicly accessible. The precedents exist: NABERS in Australia, Local Law 84 in New York, the direction of travel in the EU’s EPBD recast. When every building’s performance is comparable and visible, information asymmetry collapses. Buyers see before they ask; tenants compare before they sign; investors benchmark without relying on manager self-reporting. High performers gain; poor performers can no longer hide in portfolio averages.
   
   

2. Assurable Automation Commands a Secondary-Market Premium
   The endpoint of these trends is capital value. Buildings with verifiable, well-documented, cyber-secure automation systems, where performance claims can be audited and technology infrastructure is maintainable, will command a premium in the secondary market. Buyers pay more when uncertainty is lower; lenders offer better terms when operational risk is demonstrable; insurers price for resilience. “Assurable automation“ becomes a valuation input alongside location, tenant covenant, and lease term. Buildings without it face obsolescence discounts that widen over time.
   

The direction here is locked in. The uncertainty is pace, not destination. The interesting questions aren’t whether these shifts will occur, but who moves first, who captures the transition premium, and who gets stuck holding assets optimised for a market that no longer exists.

Next week: 10 Foundational Themes. In the meantime—any of these you’d challenge? Any you’re already acting on?