Asset management Looking ahead: 6 trends in the real estate industry

Time to read5 min.
updated at04/01/2026
CategoryReal estate market
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Contents

Real estate shapes our world. That is why it is particularly important in our industry to keep an eye on the market and to recognise the trends of tomorrow early. This is the only way we can design real estate today to meet the requirements of tomorrow.

This principle guides us at Commerz Real: identifying new trends, developing new standards, unlocking new potential - before others do.

Here are six trends that will shape the real estate industry over the next twenty years. 

First trend: Thinking health and demographics together

Our society is getting older. The needs of older people are thus becoming more of a focus. Not least because, thanks to the rising quality of life and growing health awareness, many people stay fit much longer than they did a few decades ago.1

At the same time, the medical sector is changing: Younger clinicians are now placing greater focus on work-life balance and flexible, often part-time working models.

For the real estate strategy, this means: Anyone who no longer thinks of real estate in one dimension, but instead combines several functions under one roof, can adapt it to a much wider range of needs. Together, retail and healthcare create new social meeting places. Specialist medical services combined with sports, wellness or cosmetics create added value - for tenants, users and investors.

An example from the hausInvest portfolio shows what this looks like in practice: In Frankfurt Westend, the healthcare company Eterno has designed practice areas to resemble a shared coworking space. Flexible structures optimise work processes, save time and enable more comprehensive treatment. The open design of the surfaces - as part of the so-called healing architecture - actively contributes to the well-being of patients.

Discover the hausInvest portfolio.

Second trend: Making the office and work future-proof

The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work. Flexible models such as working from home and flexitime are firmly established in many highly digitalised countries. This has its benefits, especially when it comes to reconciling private and professional life.

But you can't do it without an office. The task of companies is to bring people back into the office, not by force, but by offer. Flat rates according to generations X, Y and Z are too short. Our society and our life designs have become too complex.

What really matters is the quality of the workplace. Not a bar or table football in the office, but a working environment that enables productive work and is at least as appealing as your own home. Then people come to the office because they want to - not because they have to. 

Outstanding: The office that attracts people

The Widok Towers in Warsaw show what this means in practice: centrally located, smartly networked, flexibly designed. The office building in the hausInvest portfolio was awarded the “Office of the Year” award and sets a new standard for modern workspaces.
Take a look at the Widok Towers
Two people shaking hands in a modern office building with a glass facade, city view in the background.

Third trend: Digitalization as a design task

Digitalisation and digital networking are now indispensable in the real estate industry. The decisive question is not whether, but how we integrate digital technologies productively into our properties and working structures.

The increase in working from home during the coronavirus crisis has shown: There is no one-size-fits-all answer to productivity. What often suffers is the power of innovation - that is, what makes personal collaboration and spontaneous exchange possible first.2 Rooms must therefore keep up with technology and at the same time protect what cannot be replaced digitally: Encounter, exchange, joint thinking.  

Productively integrating digital technologies into real estate without displacing social issues is one of the key future trends in our industry. 
 

Fourth trend: Rethinking the Core Concept

Above all, one aspect is decisive for the value of an office property: their position. Central, well-connected, with important facilities within easy reach. That’s the classic core concept - and it stays right. But that’s not enough.

Because when people work differently, shop differently and live differently, the factors that make an urban environment attractive also change. A single property that sees itself as a closed system loses relevance. What counts is the contribution to the urban living environment in which it is embedded.

Specifically, this means: Real estate needs to be thought of as part of a connected neighbourhood. Not as an individual value, but as a building block of an urban landscape. Anyone who implements this today not only secures the long-term value of their properties, but also actively contributes to the future of the site. 

The Tucherpark shows what this looks like in practice

Commerz Real has been developing an existing city district for hausInvest with its project partner Hines for several years on a 14-hectare site in the heart of Munich, directly on the Eisbach river and adjacent to the Englischer Garten: listed office buildings from the 1970s are being renovated and further developed, supplemented by new types of use such as housing, catering, health, sports and culture. A new public transport connection connects the neighbourhood with the city. 10 hectares of green space remain unchanged.

The energy concept makes the neighbourhood concept particularly tangible: Solar energy, hydropower from the Eisbach river and the data centre’s waste heat are combined - and will in future not only supply a single building, but the entire district. Since the beginning of 2026, Bavaria’s first AI factory has been in operation in the former HVB data centre. T-Systems is an anchor user and operator of Polarise. Together, we are planning the expansion to up to 15 megawatts. The resulting waste heat is intended to heat surrounding buildings in the future. 
Aerial view of a city with a river, surrounded by trees and modern buildings, in a clear sky.
A smiling man in a suit is sitting under a black pendant against a bright background.
Tucherpark is a fillet in the heart of Munich and in the middle of the greenery. The location on the Eisbach river has unique potential for a modern neighbourhood that combines urbanity and nature.
Mario Schüttauf
hausInvest fund manager since 2007
A large hanging bridge with inclined cables stretches over water under a blue sky.

And infrastructure? Becomes its own asset class

What the Tucherpark shows at district level is currently also taking place at the macroeconomic level: Infrastructure is no longer only seen as a prerequisite for real estate value, but as an independent investment class. Radio towers, district heating networks, data centres, fibre optics - these are the cores through which urban neighbourhoods function.

This is precisely where infraVest, launched in December 2025, comes in. As Commerz Real’s first infrastructure fund for private investors, it invests in communications infrastructure such as radio towers and data centres, in supply networks, mobility and social infrastructure. The first investment - a stake in the radio tower operator ATC Europe with around 15,000 locations in Germany alone - has already been made.

Germany has infrastructure investment needs of 1.3 trillion euros by 2040.3 This need is not a threat to real estate assets: It is their foundation. Those who think of both together, real estate and infrastructure as a networked living environment rather than as separate asset classes, are consistently thinking ahead with the core concept. 
A man is wearing a black suit without a tie and a pocket square. He is standing with one arm leaning on a barrier in front of the framed initials of Commerz Real and a lampshade.
When roads, railways, waterways, power supply and telecommunications lines are reliably developed, everyone benefits: people, companies and the state.
Mr Sandro Berweiler
fund manager infraVest since 2026

Fifth trend: Plan crises as normal state

Crises are now part of the reality of our industry. The rapid resolution of political, economic and social uncertainties is more of an exception than a rule. Our world is too complex and complex for such distortions to be calmed quickly.

What does this mean for the real estate industry? Instead of hoping for a short-term recovery, we should focus on long-term resilience. Construction costs, interest rate increases, market fluctuations, rental losses - these are no longer contingencies, but planning variables. If you involve them from the outset, you can take precautions at an early stage and cushion negative developments.

 

Proactive instead of reactive: Resilience as a strategy

In difficult times in particular, proactive action pays off. The climate crisis, for example, requires the sustainable transformation of existing properties. Regulatory requirements for energy efficiency will increase. As asset managers, we cannot and should not hide from such developments. Nobody expects everything to be optimised immediately. But those who deal with the relevant challenges today and make the appropriate decisions are doing the right thing.
 

Sixth trend: Sustainability as strategic potential

Good properties are not built and then forgotten. They are actively developed further: through renovations, new usage concepts, better energy supply. In the industry, we call this “manage-to-core”: turn an average object into a first-class one.

Today, sustainability can no longer be separated from this context. The focus is shifting from mere portfolio optimization to the active, forward-looking development of real estate—in the broadest sense. This encompasses all three dimensions summarized under the term ESG: environmental responsibility, social engagement, and responsible corporate governance.

 

Sustainability pays off - economically

This has long been an economic reality: Today’s most in-demand tenants simply demand sustainability standards. If you want to win, you have to deliver.

This works best in partnership. Close cooperation with the tenants - with shared goals, clear agreements and mutual incentives - is the basis for a property operation that is sustainable in the long term.

Get to know our sustainability strategy

To sum up: Actively shaping the future of the real estate industry

health, work, digitalisation, neighbourhood, resilience, sustainability. These six trends have one thing in common: They reward everyone who acts today. Those who wait until the pressure comes from the outside have already taken the initiative.

The future of the real estate industry is open, but not arbitrary. The course is now set. We make them active.

Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ

Core properties are centrally located, stable properties with reliable tenants and manageable risk. This concept remains correct, but is too short: If you only consider a property as an individual asset, you overlook that its long-term value depends on the urban environment in which it is embedded. Real estate needs to be thought of as part of a connected neighbourhood.

“Manage-to-Green” is a further evolution of the “Manage-to-Core” principle and thus addresses the growing demand for ESG compliance: The strategy aims not only to enhance the value of real estate but also to systematically integrate environmental, social, and governance requirements into the process. This is no longer mere idealism—tenants who expect sustainability standards are among the most attractive target groups in the market. Those who plan without sustainable concepts will come up empty-handed.

Infrastructure - radio towers, district heating networks, data centres, fibre optics - is increasingly being seen as a stand-alone investment class, not just as a prerequisite for property value. Germany will need to invest 1.3 trillion euros in infrastructure by 2040.3 Those who think of real estate and infrastructure as a networked living environment are consistently thinking ahead with the core concept. 

Crises are no longer a special case, but rather a planning factor. Construction costs, interest rate increases, market fluctuations and regulatory requirements should be included in the strategy from the outset. Long-term resilience beats short-term recovery.

The office remains relevant when it offers people something that the home office cannot: Encounter, exchange, joint thinking. The quality of the working environment determines whether people want or have to come. 

1Destatis – Demographic Change (2024): https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Querschnitt/Demografischer-Wandel/_inhalt.html

2ifo Institute – Majority of Companies See No Difference in Productivity Between the Office and Working from Home (2023): https://www.ifo.de/fakten/2023-10-17/mehrheit-der-unternehmen-sieht-gleiche-produktivitaet-im-buero-und-homeoffice

3G20 Global Infrastructure Outlook – Infrastructure investment needs (as of February 2026): https://outlook.gihub.org