The use of artificial intelligence is impacting the real estate industry in an unexpected manner. As a survey by the Association of German Property Managers (VDIV Deutschland) shows, property management companies are increasingly confronted with a shift in communication from clients and occupants. Nine out of ten managers now regularly receive correspondence drafted with the aid of AI applications.
Rising review workload in day-to-day management
The letters in question originate equally from owners and tenants. What stands out most is the formal design of the documents: they are generally very comprehensive and superficially convey a sound legal impression. Upon substantive review, however, severe deficiencies regularly emerge, as the artificially generated arguments are frequently flawed.
For property managers, this development represents a noticeable operational burden. Reviewing and factually rectifying texts that appear legalistic yet are factually incorrect ties up staff capacity. Rather than pursuing regular property management tasks or strategic initiatives, teams lose valuable working time refuting these letters.
Structural impact on communication
The association's survey documents a structural issue that currently defines daily work across the sector:
- —High impact: Around 90 per cent of property managers already receive AI-assisted correspondence.
- —Complex tone: The texts are characterised by a strongly legalistic tone and considerable length.
- —Substantive deficiencies: On closer inspection, the automatically generated submissions often prove incorrect.
- —Capacity drain: The necessary professional assessment leads to measurable losses of time within the firms.
Handling complex property matters requires sound specialist knowledge and legal precision. When tenants and owners rely on automated language models without a deeper understanding of the subject matter, this rarely leads to swifter resolutions, instead increasing the administrative workload. The findings of the VDIV demonstrate that AI-assisted correspondence is currently complicating dialogue between managers, owners and tenants considerably.
