Legacy systems, scattered data, teams working in silos. Real estate companies face challenges that hinder efficiency, stall productivity and, ultimately, constrain budgets. Digitalization is the industry’s answer to achieving access to quality data and problem-solving capabilities that bring business value and increase customer satisfaction.
But not every company is at the same level of maturity when it comes to taking the leap to more modern, tech-based solutions.
It all starts with change management, according to Fredrik Hörnsten, Chief Digital Officer at Hemsö Fastigheter, a leading company based in Sweden that owns and manages community properties across the Nordics and Germany.
“It’s about changing how people are working,” explains Hörnsten, who’s been leading Hemsö’s digitalization journey for the past five years. “Not just because we are doing it, but because it’s something they really will use for their work.”
One of the main goals was helping teams become more integrated, collaborating closely with different departments, so everyone can understand the value of new projects and ways of working, like utilizing digital twins to fast-track identifying, solving and even predicting problems in their properties.
Hörnsten and his colleague Moa Eriksson, Hemsö’s digitalization manager, were among the experts taking part in Dagens Industri’s Proptech 2025 in Stockholm, an event sponsored by Frends iPaaS, where real estate industry leaders explore the potential of technologies.
These digitally created properties, for example, connect real-time data and on-prem systems, so their operations team can fix issues and identify problems before they happen, which optimizes work, saving time and money.
The industry and European companies, in general, face a gloomy market, still heavily affected by inflation and political uncertainty, which drains investments while raising the need for stronger data security.
Real estate companies are usually lean organizations, with small IT teams, adding another layer of challenges in mitigating security risks, improving efficiency, and reducing costs. This is where new technologies come in.
“We don’t have all the money in the world. If we can automate, then we get different types of value,” says Magnus Löfgren, Head of IT and digitalization at Stockholmshem, Stockholm's largest housing company with nearly 60,000 tenants.
According to Löfgren, who hosted the session “Digitalization in tough times: this is how public housing drives change without a big budget”, as real estate companies automate tasks, they can unlock unforeseen productivity. “We’re trying to do the same thing [as large corporations] but with a team of just 2 or 3 people,” he explains.
The key elements in this context, he said, are integrations: from simple connections to automating processes, APIs and reporting until it reaches a level of full automation.
AI, iPaaS, machine learning and smart devices are at the center of developing a strong and consistent digitalization journey — one that Löfgren’s presentation explained in detailed graphics of low effort and growing productivity.
The goal, in the end, is to deliver faster service for tenants, reduced costs, improved partnerships and overall, more sustainable living.