The real estate industry's challenges right now come down to six things: rising office vacancies, costs that eat into net operating income, new EU energy requirements, a shortage of the right skills, data locked in silos, and tenants who expect faster service. None of them is solved by technology alone, but digitalisation makes most of them easier to handle, because it gives you better information and frees up time. Below we go through each challenge, what the public figures say and where a digital investment actually makes a difference.
The industry's challenges at a glance
| Challenge | What is happening | Where digitalisation helps |
|---|---|---|
| Office vacancies | Polarisation between attractive and less attractive locations | Faster letting process, better data on demand |
| Cost pressure | Higher interest rates and operating costs than before 2022 | Cost tracking per property, automated reporting |
| Energy requirements | The EU energy performance directive tightens rules for commercial buildings | Energy metering and control, investment decisions |
| Skills shortage | Large retirement waves and hard-to-fill roles | Automating repetitive tasks |
| Data in silos | Finance, operations and leases in separate systems and spreadsheets | Integrations and shared definitions |
| Tenant expectations | Expectation of quick answers and clear information | Digital fault reporting, case status, communication |
1. Rising vacancies and a polarised office market
The clearest challenge for commercial property owners is office vacancy. In Fastighetsägarna's Sverigebarometer 2026, one in three property owners say office vacancies have kept rising, mainly in office areas outside the central city cores. The explanation is partly weaker employment in office-heavy industries and partly tenants moving to better, more central premises to bring staff back to the office (the so-called flight to quality).
The differences are large even within one city. According to Citymark's analysis, reported by Placera in April 2026, the office vacancy rate in central Stockholm rose from 10.3 percent in autumn 2025 to 11.1 percent in spring 2026, while the northern suburbs were at 23.1 percent.
Where digitalisation helps: If you can see vacancies, lease expiries and enquiries in one place, you can act earlier. Just as important is that vacant space reaches the right tenants quickly. We cover concrete measures in the guide on how to reduce your vacancy rate.
2. Costs and interest rates squeeze profitability
Interest rates are lower than the 2023 peak but still higher than in the years before 2022. In the same barometer, Fastighetsägarna's chief economist notes that transaction volumes remain far below the levels before what he calls the 2022 cost shock. At the same time, energy, maintenance and contractor services have become more expensive, and it is rarely possible to pass the full increase on to tenants without raising vacancy risk.
Where digitalisation helps: Many companies still track costs quarterly in spreadsheets. When finance and operations are connected, deviations become visible per property while there is still time to act. Which metrics are worth tracking is covered in our article on KPIs for property companies.
3. Energy requirements and sustainability targets
The EU's recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) entered into force in May 2024 and is being brought into Swedish law, with Boverket tasked with proposing the rule changes. The goal is a fossil-free, highly energy-efficient building stock by 2050. For existing non-residential buildings the directive sets minimum energy performance standards: the worst-performing 16 percent must be improved by 2030 and the worst 26 percent by 2033, measured against the 2020 stock.
Pressure also comes from tenants and lenders. Large tenants report their own climate impact and want figures for their premises.
Where digitalisation helps: Without metered data per building it is hard to know which properties are at risk and which measures give the most effect per krona invested. Energy monitoring and control is often the digital investment that pays back fastest.
4. Skills shortage and a generational shift
According to the Swedish property sector training board's skills report for 2025–2030, the industry needs to recruit around 12,000 people during the period, largely to replace retirees. The report highlights technical skills, energy efficiency and IT as the areas of greatest need.
Where digitalisation helps: Automation does not replace facility technicians or property managers, but it can remove time-consuming steps: manual coding of invoices, compiling monthly reports, reminders about lease expiries and logging cases. That makes existing staff more effective and reduces dependence on individual key people.
5. Data locked in silos
In many property companies, leases live in one system, finance in another, operations data in a third and the rest in Excel. The result is duplicated work, several versions of the same number and reports that show how things looked a month ago.
Where digitalisation helps: The most important step is rarely buying a new system. It is agreeing on shared definitions (what counts as vacant space, which id a unit has) and connecting the systems you already have. We describe how in the article on moving from Excel to real-time property data.
6. Tenant expectations
Tenants compare their landlord with the best services they use elsewhere. They want to report faults digitally, follow their case and get answers without chasing anyone. There is also a positive signal: in Fastighetsbarometern, the annual survey run by CFI Group and Fastighetsägarna, commercial tenants in 2025 gave their landlords the highest satisfaction score to date. The top-ranked companies point to accessibility and personal contact, not advanced technology.
Where digitalisation helps: Digital tools make it easier to be available at scale, but they do not replace the relationship. What tenants actually value is covered in our article on what tenants want.
Digitalisation in the real estate industry: where does it stand?
The industry is clearly aware of the need but has a long way to go. In a GlobalConnect survey of 300 Swedish property owners (2023), nine in ten said they had a long way to go before their portfolio was digitalised. The most common obstacles were that digitalisation is not prioritised in the budget, a lack of in-house skills and the difficulty of introducing new systems while running day-to-day operations.
At the same time, some areas are moving fast. The share of Swedish companies with at least ten employees using AI rose from 25 to 35 percent between 2024 and 2025 according to Statistics Sweden (SCB), and in SCB's report on AI use in companies 2025 real estate is one of the sectors where use grew most. For a broader look at how digitalisation works in practice, read our article on digitalisation in the real estate industry.
How to prioritise: where to start
- Start with the business problem, not the technology. Pick one or two of the challenges above that cost the most in your portfolio, for example vacancies in a particular area or energy costs in older buildings.
- Secure the core data. Make sure properties, units, areas and leases have unambiguous ids and that someone owns data quality.
- Connect before you replace. Integrations between existing systems often deliver more than a new system nobody has time to roll out.
- Measure the effect. Decide in advance which metric should improve, for example time from notice to a new lease.
- One step at a time. Smaller projects that finish beat large programmes that stall.
One example of a well-scoped initiative is letting. With Shace you can publish vacant premises directly from your own system via API and receive qualified enquiries from companies that have described what they are looking for, without entering the same information by hand in several channels.
Frequently asked questions
What are the biggest challenges in the real estate industry right now?
Rising office vacancies, especially outside the most central locations, are the clearest. After that come cost pressure from interest rates and operations, stricter energy requirements through the EU energy performance directive, a skills shortage driven by retirements, and fragmented data that makes follow-up slow.
Why is digitalisation slow in the real estate industry?
The industry was profitable for a long time without having to change how it works, and buildings have long lifespans. Surveys point to lack of budget, lack of in-house skills and the difficulty of switching systems in the middle of daily operations as the most common obstacles.
What does the EU energy performance directive mean for owners of commercial buildings?
The directive requires minimum energy performance standards for existing non-residential buildings, with the worst performers improved first in stages in 2030 and 2033. Exactly how the rules are shaped in Sweden will be settled when the directive is written into Swedish regulations, and Boverket is tasked with proposing the changes.
Where does digitalisation pay off fastest for a property company?
Usually in energy monitoring, automated reporting and letting. These are areas where results show up in net operating income or the vacancy rate within a year and where much of the data already exists.
Want to reach more qualified tenants without more manual work? Learn more about Shace for landlords.