On 5 November 2026, the second edition of the EBZ PropTech Days took place on the campus of the European Business School for Housing and Real Estate (EBZ) in Bochum. Supported by VdW Rheinland Westfalen, the specialist conference brought together more than 200 industry representatives, 16 PropTech companies as well as 160 apprentices and students. The focus was on which technologies create measurable operational added value and which strategies housing companies must adopt to respond to the transformation driven by artificial intelligence.
Strategic Course Setting in the Executive Circle
The executive session was opened by Prof. Dr Christian Unsöld from the EBZ Business School and EBZ Akademie. He emphasised that artificial intelligence does not simply replace human labour, but redistributes tasks between people and technology. This requires profound adjustments to responsibilities and leadership structures that extend far beyond purely technical questions.
Dr Babak Zeini, Managing Director of futurest GmbH, outlined a market environment under the title '2030 Is Decided Now', in which AI agents handle operational procedures, digital twins manage building operations and algorithms prepare decisions. Drawing parallels to the historical electrification of industry, he explained that the decisive leap in productivity only occurs through the reorganisation of companies. The bottleneck is not technological, but a strategic vacuum. Zeini warned against dependence on global platform operators and called for digital sovereignty as well as shared industry platforms. He advised housing companies to implement a structured 100-day process towards initial verifiable pilot projects.
Practical Process Integration and Next-Generation Perspective
Raphael Küppersbusch from Aareon demonstrated specific fields of application using the AI solution AAVA within the Wodis Yuneo ERP system. The application operates in a secure system environment directly with corporate data. Incoming invoices or tenant enquiries are automatically recorded, assigned to contracts and properties, and prepared for final approval by staff. Prof. Dr-Ing. Heiko Gsell from the EBZ Business School underlined that the actual value of systems is only proven at the interfaces within ongoing business processes, such as the complete processing of a damage report.
- —Reliable data sets as the foundation for automated processing steps
- —Open interfaces between ERP systems and specialised PropTech applications
- —Clearly defined responsibilities for manual verification and approval processes
Running parallel to the executive circle, 160 young professionals analysed the business models of the 16 participating technology companies in the 'NextGen meets PropTech' format. During an innovation rally, they evaluated problem-solving capabilities, functionality and economic viability for housing companies. In the afternoon, the teams presented their results to the plenary session in four-minute presentations. In the concluding vote, the group presenting the AI solution AAVA won first place. Aareon thus received the Golden Ticket, jointly awarded with blackprint, for the PropTech Germany Pitches & Award in Hanover.
