Real Estate's Great Rewiring: From Opaque Assets to Transparent, Self-Optimising Investments
The next decade transforms real estate: AI makes assets cheaper, transparent, and built for investors.

From agentic facilities management to valuation 2.0, the next ten years will see real estate become cheaper to run, radically more transparent, and far more investable.
THIS IS A SPECIAL REPORT
It’s becoming clearer how AI and other technologies are likely to manifest themselves within the real estate industry over the next 10 years.
We have grouped 18 emerging trends into timelines: ones that are happening now, those that’ll develop over the next 2-5 years, and ones 5-10 years out. Several overlap but the trends demonstrate different use cases, representing meaningful workflows within the industry that we didn’t want to set aside.If anything we are being conservative in these timings and they might occur faster, but it is safe to say that by 2035 we’ll be seeing an industry familiar and comfortable with a whole range of new technologies, workflows and behaviours.As it is rather long, I’ve added this executive summary, which says it all in a nutshell. For the details, read the rest or skip to the trend you’re interested in.
Executive Summary
Overview
Over the next decade, AI and related technologies will transform commercial real estate from a fragmented, opaque sector into one defined by automation, transparency, and continuous optimisation. The adoption curve is compressing: many changes are already underway. By 2035, real estate assets will be cheaper to operate, higher performing for occupiers, and more transparent for investors—cementing the industry’s shift into a modern, data-driven future.
Key Timelines & Trends
- Now – 2 Years (Already in play): Passkeys drive tenant app revenue; NABERS-style operational evidence replaces EPCs; provenance-first artefacts* accelerate deals; agentic FM triage cuts ticket times; AI-powered lease intelligence gains trust; controls optimisation pays back in <12 months.
- 2 – 5 Years (Scaling across portfolios): Budget-bounded AI agents handle procurement and property management; audit-ready, provenance-signed AI outputs become the norm; plant CapEx includes optimisation with M&V guarantees; live, signed data feeds flow directly to valuers and lenders.
- 5 – 10 Years (Systemic transformation): AI orchestrates O&M by default; portfolio-wide disclosure becomes mandatory; live operational data streams feed directly into DCFs; “assurable automation” emerges as a premium in secondary markets.
Why This Matters
- Efficiency → AI agents cut portfolio operating costs by 20–40%.
- Transparency → Provenance-signed, performance-based data shortens sales cycles and eliminates pricing games.
- Capital → Assets with auditable automation and transparent operational evidence secure cheaper finance and higher liquidity.
- Talent → Real estate finally looks like a modern, data-rich industry—attracting the calibre of people it has long struggled to retain.
All things
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Exploring how AI and technology are reshaping real estate and cities to serve the future of work, rest, and play.

Cohort 12 starts 5 September #GenerativeAIforRealEstatePeople
The only AI course built by CRE pros, for CRE pros—from leasing agents and asset managers to workplace strategists.
In 3 weeks you’ll:
- Break down 20+ live case studies across the built environment
- Get hands-on with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity & Midjourney
- Plug in 20 real-estate prompt frameworks to speed leasing, underwriting, ops & placemaking
- Leave with a playbook to spot high-ROI use cases and drive adoption on your team
“A must-take for anyone serious about AI in real estate.” — Prof. Suleiman Alhadidi, Vanderbilt University
“Insightful and truly engaging.” - Satbir Bassra, Senior Product manager, British Land, UK
The Trends
Present/Near-Term (Already in play or with rapid impact):
1. Passkeys As A Revenue Lever
What/Why?
Passkeys, or device-based logins, eliminate passwords and reduce user friction. This in turn leads to more frequent sign-ins and higher engagement, as users authenticate via biometrics or device PIN. Less friction is highly likely to translate into higher ‘Monthly Active Users’ (MAUs) and more opportunities for personalised offers and transactions, effectively removing the "password tax" to unlock untapped revenue.
What to watch for:
Growing support from major tech companies. As of late 2024 20% of top websites support passkeys and Amazon reports 175 million customers use them.
Value hook:
It would not be unreasonable to see 15-30% more active users of a tenant engagement app with perhaps a 5-10% boost in revenue from increased amenity sales. This would transform identity from a security cost centre into a revenue lever, enabling "agentic" (AI-driven, personalised) interactions and improving security by virtually eliminating phishing risks.
2. Operational Evidence Beats EPCs in Due Diligence
What/Why?
Traditional due diligence relies on static metrics like Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), which are based on design specs. However, investors and tenants realise these don’t tell the full story and will increasingly demand actual operational evidence, such as 12 months of utility bills, real consumption, and indoor environmental data, which is far more revealing of a building’s true performance.We are already seeing this reflected in the increasing use of the NABERS rating system, which uses metered energy.The great unlock is that providing a digital trail of operational evidence reduces uncertainty and would help speed up sale proceedings.
What to watch for:
Increased use of NABERS-style ratings but most especially investors explicitly pricing deals on in-use efficiency, with compliance to operational carbon targets influencing bid levels.
Value hook:
The lack of transparency of operational evidence costs time and money when it comes to sales, or investments. No-one trusts EPCs (rightly) and any good negotiator will chip away at the price based on lack of robust data.
3. Provenance-first Artifacts* Shorten Sales Cycles
What/Why:
A major time sink in real estate deals is verifying document authenticity and accuracy. Provenance-first artefacts are documents and data files cryptographically signed at the source, creating tamper-evident records. This immediately establishes trust in data integrity, collapsing the audit burden in due diligence by making cross-checking redundant. Knowing each artefact is "as originally issued" accelerates deal processes.
What to watch for:
Startups working on "blockchain-verified proofs" for private real estate data rooms, Real estate platforms using technologies like blockchain, digital notaries, or secure data escrow for due diligence, the emergence of ISO standards or industry protocols on digital building documentation, insurers or Big Four auditors requesting digitally signed building performance data, and sellers advertising a "verified data package" in their deals.
Value hook:
The core value is speed and confidence. By removing doubt one is effectively monetising trust.
4. Privacy-Preserving Occupancy Beats Camera Analytics (Total Cost of Risk)
What/Why?
Monitoring occupancy is vital, but camera-based analytics present high privacy and compliance risks (e.g., GDPR fines, legal liability, tenant backlash) due to collecting identifiable data. Privacy-preserving occupancy solutions (e.g., thermal sensors, infrared detectors) avoid collecting personal data by only counting signals, drastically lowering compliance overhead and risk. These solutions deliver necessary occupancy metrics without identifying individuals.
What to watch for:
Fewer employee complaints regarding surveillance, faster regulatory approval for sensor projects, with privacy-friendly sensors "sailing through" internal compliance, companies removing cameras due to staff backlash and Insurance or legal advisors recommending non-camera solutions to reduce liability.
Value hook:
The value is primarily in risk avoidance and operational savings. Face recognition is a GDPR compliance nightmare, involving throwing money down the drain. Avoiding it isn’t hard and makes little or no difference to how you operate.
5. Agentic FM Triage Under Spend Caps Cuts Cycle Time (Without Scaring Risk)
What/Why?
Facilities Management (FM) involves numerous small issues requiring quick resolution. Agentic FM triage uses AI "agents" to automatically handle routine work orders up to a defined spend limit, dramatically speeding up response times. These agents classify and action requests instantly, handling the routine 80% of tickets. Spend caps and rules keep risk in check, ensuring complex or high-value issues are escalated to humans, thereby lowering risk exposure.
What to watch for:
Early deployments in large portfolios as FM teams use their scale to re-orient around doing more with less. Change management programs looking at where the ‘human in the loop’ needs to be and how much leeway, in terms of budget, an AI can be allowed. Software companies will surely be building in such capabilities soon.
Value hook:
It’s a straight numbers game. If AI handles 30% of tickets automatically, FM teams can be 20–30% more productive, managing more buildings with existing staff. The budget caps keep everything manageable.
6. Controls Optimisation (Pick One Plant Loop) Pays Back < 1 Year
What/Why?
Most large buildings’ HVAC and plant systems run sub-optimally. Controls optimisation applies advanced algorithms to run equipment more efficiently. While owners may fear costs, targeting a single plant loop or system yields such significant energy savings that the project pays for itself within a year. This "low-hanging fruit" approach is a bite-sized project with minimal disruption, as it involves improving existing controls rather than replacing equipment.
What to watch for:
Successful pilots, “Optimisation” becoming a dedicated budget line item in CapEx plans, and performance-based contracts (e.g., "No savings, no fee") for building optimisation becoming common.
Value hook:
The economics are compelling: energy costs in real estate are a significant line item, and everyone knows there is a lot of low hanging fruit in terms of badly configured systems.
7. Lease/Contract Intelligence with Citations
What/Why?
Manual legal and financial analysis of leases and contracts is slow and costly. And the bane of everyone’s life in real estate. AI intelligence tools are now good enough to overcome the ‘trust problem’ and are "bankable" for decision-making by lenders, investors, and asset managers.
What to watch for:
More deals and workflows explicitly incorporating AI outputs, often noting they were "generated with AI and verified”, regulatory and court acceptance of AI-generated contract analysis as evidence, provided sources are verifiable, insurance or lender guidance accepting AI-flagged risks or waiving full attorney review if AI tools with citations have been used and major real estate brokerages and services firms partnering with AI providers for lease abstraction.
Value hook:
Dedicated lease extractions services, with direct citations, are good enough that no-one should be manually extracting leases. The cost savings are considerable, and the savings in time are important for ‘getting deals done’. Contract intelligence is similar though it’s likely a ‘human in the loop’ will be required. For now.
8. Converged Identity Extends to Visitors and Contractors
What/Why?
Traditional systems for employees, visitors, and contractors are often fragmented, creating inefficiencies and security gaps. Converged identity management provides one unified platform for anyone needing access (physical or digital), streamlining processes. This improves security and compliance by enforcing uniform policies and enhancing convenience with a single digital credential. It closes security vulnerabilities by automatically deactivating access when contracts end or IT accounts are disabled.
What to watch for:
New solutions from tech suppliers, policies requiring visitor and contractor compliance, regulatory drivers in sectors like healthcare and data centres, and visitor kiosks issuing credentials managed in the same system as employee badges.
Value hook:
Major gains are in security and efficiency. A unified identity reduces "orphan" accounts and badges, lowering breach risk and avoiding incidents. Possibly reduced insurance costs but significant efficiency savings in onboarding and compliance. Quantitatively, converged IAM can lower identity management costs by ~30%. It ultimately protects asset value and reduces costs from fragmented systems.
9. Performance-Based Disclosure (NABERS-Style) in Particulars & Term Sheets
What/Why?
Investors, tenants, and regulators are increasingly demanding actual performance data (especially energy and carbon) over design intents. In the near future, marketing documents for sales or leases will prominently feature performance-based ratings (e.g., NABERS, ENERGY STAR scores, actual consumption figures) as standard. This shift is driven by existing mandates (e.g., Australia), investor ESG mandates, and regulation (e.g., NYC’s Local Law 33), as stakeholders require real, measurable performance data.
What to watch for:
Appearance of energy use intensity (EUI) figures, operational carbon numbers, or NABERS/ENERGY STAR ratings on the first page of offering memorandums and broker brochures. Plus new industry standards (e.g., RICS, NCREIF), tenants requesting performance data during leasing, and "Particulars Plus" data rooms offering live data feeds supporting headline figures.
Value hook:
This enables market differentiation and pricing of efficiency. Buildings with strong performance disclosure will enjoy a "green premium" or better liquidity, while laggards might face a "brown discount”. Once performance-based disclosure becomes common, failure to be open will be punished, a shift that will be transformational for the market in data.
10. Insurers/Lenders Begin Pricing ‘Control-Plane Maturity’
What/Why?
Insurers and lenders are refining risk assessment. As buildings become smarter, their "control-plane maturity" (how advanced, reliable, and secure automation and control systems are) is an emerging risk factor. A building with robust, well-integrated, and cyber-hardened controls is deemed lower risk for property insurance and operational disruptions. Insurers already discount for IoT monitors; this will extend to pricing in the overall control environment.
What to watch for:
Insurers rolling out new products or endorsements for smart buildings, underwriting questionnaires asking detailed control-system questions, green financing criteria expanding to consider operational tech certifications or smart scores and rating agency commentary positively viewing portfolios with high digital infrastructure maturity.
Value hook:
Lower insurance premiums, attractiveness to investors and improved access to capital. This trend effectively monetises good operations.
Mid-Term (2–5 Years):
11. Budget-Bounded Agents Run Part of PM/PPM and Low-Value Procurement (2–5 Yrs)
What/Why?
This is pushing on from trend 5. In 2–5 years, autonomous AI agents will handle a significant portion of property management (PM), preventive maintenance (PPM), and procurement tasks within defined budget limits. This extends beyond reactive triage to proactive management, like ordering consumables when inventory is low or scheduling routine maintenance within an annual budget. The "bounded" approach prevents overspending, ensuring financial risk is controlled while boosting efficiency.
What to watch for:
Formal policies authorising AI-driven spending, with CFOs setting expenditure limits for AI agents, startups marketing "auto-procurement bots" for spare parts or AI scheduling assistants for preventive maintenance, vendor consolidation of physical and digital ID systems allowing agents to manage contractors as just-in-time resources, and integration of IoT, inventory systems, and procurement, enabling AI agents to orchestrate sequences from fault detection to scheduling technicians.
Value hook:
This is when costs start to tumble. Automating 40–70% of procurement/PM tasks will substantially cut administrative overhead. Agents operate 24/7 with instant response, ensuring faster maintenance and preventing issues from escalating, avoiding downtime or damage costs. AI can reduce maverick spending and secure bulk discounts by consistently following plans. Every AI action is logged, providing detailed audit trails and consistency, reducing mistakes and mitigating risk.
12. Audit-Ready, Provenance-Signed AI Workpapers Become Normal
What/Why?
As AI increasingly informs business decisions, especially in regulated areas like finance and real estate accounting, there's a need to trust and verify its outputs. In 2–5 years, AI-generated analysis ("AI workpapers") will come with a robust audit trail, metadata, and cryptographic signatures proving its generation process, data, and integrity. This "provenance-signed" approach ensures auditors can confirm legitimacy, enabling "assurable automation".
What to watch for:
Auditors and regulators starting to mandate these provenance mandates, tech suppliers enabling them, industry consortiums defining standard formats, and insurers requiring audit logs.
Value hook:
The value is trust and compliance, directly impacting the bottom line by reducing the risk of compliance failures and improving decision quality. Audit-ready AI unlocks greater AI ROI by enabling confident automation. No more black boxes and immediate explainability.
13. Optimisation Becomes a Line-Item in Plant CapEx – M&V or Don’t Pay
What/Why?
Historically, CapEx for plant upgrades focused on equipment, not ongoing optimisation. This is changing: in 2–5 years, it will be standard to include an "optimisation" line-item in plant CapEx, often under a "Measurement & Verification (M&V) or you don’t pay" performance contracting model. The industry recognises that new equipment needs continuous tuning (via analytics, AI optimisation) to deliver promised savings. RFPs will bundle multi-year optimisation agreements, linking payments to verified energy savings. See previous newsletter about ‘Outcomes as a Service’.
What to watch for:
RFPs and contracts using language like, "Vendor will provide continuous commissioning software... Payment tied to performance subject to M&V”, accounting treatment that allocates part of plant CapEx to an "opex-as-a-service" model, consultants recommending "optimisation or bust" for any plant upgrade, ASHRAE and CIBSE incorporating M&V and optimisation tuning periods into major plant retrofitting standards and insurance or lenders preferring projects with performance guarantees.
Value hook:
The value is ensuring projected savings are actually achieved and persist. An optimisation line-item, though adding 5–10% to project cost, can hugely improve ROI by guaranteeing 20–30% energy reduction. Making vendor payment contingent on M&V eliminates the risk of wasted CapEx on the optimisation part.
14. Data Rooms Offer Live, Signed Feeds to Valuers and Lenders
What/Why?
Real estate due diligence has relied on static documents. In 2–5 years, data rooms will commonly include API endpoints or live CSV links to key building performance data, cryptographically signed or blockchain-verified for integrity. This allows valuers and lenders to pull real-time data (e.g., hourly energy consumption, occupancy rates) directly from building systems, rather than relying on summaries. This enables dynamic analysis, speeding up diligence and improving accuracy.
What to watch for:
Inclusion of data APIs in deal marketing, valuation firms tooling up to consume API data from buildings, adoption of blockchain, regulatory moves requiring continuous provision of KPIs, and formalising the practice of providing BMS logins into read-only APIs with digital signatures in VDRs.
Value hook:
Value is in speed and confidence in transactions. Live, trusted data can reduce due diligence by weeks, enabling more precise and faster underwriting and faster closing for sellers. And be even more transformational than trend 9.
Longer-Term (5–10 Years):
15. Agent-Orchestrated O&M Becomes Default; Humans Manage Exceptions
What/Why?
Within 5–10 years, AI agents will coordinate most routine Operations & Maintenance (O&M) tasks by default, with humans managing only exceptions, oversight, and vendor relations. This is the logical culmination of earlier trends, where AI systems become the "autopilot" of building operations.
What to watch for:
Significant changes in staffing ratios (e.g., 1 facility manager per 50 buildings instead of 5), FM providers (e.g., JLL, CBRE) offering "AI-driven FM" solutions, case studies of buildings operating "95% autonomously”, and advances in robotics for building maintenance (window cleaning drones, floor scrubbers) as physical actuators commanded by AI agents.
Value hook:
Potential for huge efficiency gains from reducing human labour by 50–70% for routine tasks, leading to net savings of ~30% of O&M costs. Tenants benefit from a more responsive building, potentially leading to higher rents or retention. It is also scalable, allowing portfolio growth without linear OpEx increases.
16. Portfolio-Wide In-Use Disclosure Is the Market Norm
What/Why?
In 5–10 years, large real estate owners and REITs will routinely disclose portfolio-wide operational performance metrics (energy, water, emissions, occupancy) to investors, regulators, and the public as standard practice. This goes beyond individual building disclosure to aggregated, portfolio-level openness.
What to watch for:
Regulatory mandates requiring large real estate owners to measure and disclose operational carbon annually, major firms signing onto net-zero commitments requiring transparent progress reporting, tenants demanding owners share building performance data portfolio-wide and stock exchange requirements for ESG metric disclosure for REIT listings.
Value hook:
Can yield lower cost of capital and higher valuations for leaders. Transparent performance management often leads to a "transparency premium" from investors. Public data forces internal focus, spurring efficiency improvements and cost savings.
17. Valuation 2.0: Live Operational Inputs Flow into DCFs by Default
What/Why?
Traditional property valuation relies on static inputs. In 5–10 years, valuations will shift to a dynamic model where live operational data streams flow directly into DCF software by default. Appraisers will pull real-time data (occupancy, traffic counts, energy costs, air quality) from building systems, enabling more accurate and forward-looking valuations. This is driven by the emergence of supporting technology (APIs, digital twins, data standards) and industry calls to integrate sustainability and operational performance into valuation methodology.
What to watch for:
Valuation software (e.g., Argus Enterprise) integrating APIs for data ingestion, advisory firms advertising "data-enhanced valuations" using live building data, valuation standards (e.g., RICS Red Book) evolving to encourage use of operational data, digital twin platforms partnering with appraisal firms to feed them data and forward-thinking investors requiring actual sustainability performance data in cash flow analysis.
Value hook:
The most direct value is improved accuracy and confidence in valuations. This leads to better investment/lending decisions and less risk of overpaying/underselling or loan defaults. Live data helps catch declines in performance early, allowing for "real-time adjustment" of valuations and operational intervention to preserve value.
18. Secondary-Market Premium Emerges for ‘Assurable Automation’ Buildings
What/Why:
In 5–10 years, buildings with highly automated systems that are demonstrably assurable (reliable, safe, verifiable, cybersecurity hardened) will command a premium in the secondary market (sales, REIT/share price). This evolves from "green premiums," recognising the value of automation proven to be trustworthy.
What to watch for:
Brokers highlighting “SmartScore Platinum” in offering memos, actual sale comparables showing assets with verified automation selling at lower cap rates, ”Assurable automation" becoming a due diligence item, with buyers hiring consultants to audit a building's tech stack, and top tenants demanding fully smart-enabled buildings and paying more rent for them.
Value hook:
Quantitatively, an “assurable automation” building could have operating costs 10% lower and command 5% higher rent, significantly boosting NOI. It rewards buildings that are effectively "future-proof" and high-performing due to tech, leading to formal adjustments in valuations.
CONCLUSION
By 2035, most buildings will run largely on autopilot: self-describing, continuously optimised, and radically more transparent. The strategic stakes are clear:
- Efficiency → Operating costs fall 20–40% as AI handles the bulk of routine work.
- Transparency → Hidden inefficiencies disappear; pricing chips and data droughts become relics.
- Capital → Valuations and financing will hinge on live, audit-ready performance data.
- Talent → An industry once seen as slow and opaque becomes a magnet for modern, data-native professionals.
The winners will be those who act now - doubling down on today’s trends, positioning for mid-term automation, and ruthlessly questioning which assets and business models can survive in a world of transparent, self-optimising real estate.
OVER TO YOU
Which trend can you double down on today? Which one can you lean into for tomorrow? Which assets does this make you want to sell, and which to buy? And how might this change how you work?
It’s all doable, and will happen. And a lot of it already is. Where is your place in this world?
* Provenance-first artefacts mean documents or digital objects that are cryptographically signed at the source, creating tamper-evident records.
All things
#SpaceasaService
Exploring how AI and technology are reshaping real estate and cities to serve the future of work, rest, and play.