Technology is becoming increasingly embedded in real estate, but the industry's biggest challenge may still be getting the basics right. At our recent Zagreb Property Forum 2026, technology experts discussed how better data, AI and digital platforms can improve investment decisions, building operations and development processes, while warning that technology can only deliver results when companies have the right data, processes and people behind it.
Siniša Dagary, CEO at Investra International, highlighted access to reliable, real-time information as one of the areas where technology can have the greatest impact. Real estate investors and buyers often make decisions using fragmented or outdated market information, while platforms that connect developers, agents and investors can provide a more immediate picture of available properties and market activity. Dagary also sees blockchain and tokenisation as potentially important tools for increasing access to real estate investment and simplifying transactions. However, wider adoption will depend heavily on regulation and governments' willingness to create frameworks for new investment models. He also warned that AI creates risks when it is built on unreliable information, making data governance, security and compliance increasingly important as companies introduce these tools.
Marko Pavlović, Co-Founder at MetaProp Labs, argued that CEE is not necessarily behind more developed real estate markets in technology adoption, but operates in a more fragmented environment where the economics of implementation are different. In the US, large portfolios of similar assets can make even relatively small efficiency improvements financially significant. AI is already reducing the amount of manual work involved in underwriting, risk assessment, data gathering and repetitive property management processes. Pavlović expects similar applications to become increasingly common in Europe, although local solutions will often be needed to reflect the region's more fragmented markets and data. He also argued that real estate companies should not try to build the underlying AI infrastructure themselves. Instead, their competitive advantage should come from combining external technology with their own proprietary knowledge, data and investment logic.
Aljoša Sevčnikar, Head of Sales for WEB Applications at Imagine, stressed that much of the real estate industry still needs to complete basic digitalisation before it can fully benefit from AI. While smart buildings and sophisticated technology attract significant attention, they represent only a small share of the existing building stock. Even some major property owners still manage portfolios through spreadsheets or incomplete datasets. Without reliable information on assets, consumption and operations, AI has little meaningful data to analyse. Sevčnikar therefore sees the creation of structured, accessible property data as the essential first step. Regulation and competition are likely to be important drivers of this transition, particularly as reporting and metering requirements force owners to improve their data infrastructure. His central message was that AI should remain a tool supporting professionals rather than replacing their judgement.
Iztok Šušteršič, CTO at LynxCraft, demonstrated how technology can simplify one of real estate's most fragmented processes: developing a home. His company is building a platform designed to guide self-builders from assessing a land plot through concept design and eventually towards construction. By combining spatial information, zoning rules and AI, the platform can help users understand what they can build and estimate costs much earlier in the process, before connecting them with architects and contractors. Šušteršič emphasised that AI should accelerate professional work rather than make final decisions. The technology can analyse information and produce initial outputs quickly, but architects and other professionals remain responsible for verification. As AI improves, he expects the time required for many planning and design tasks to fall substantially.
The discussion, chaired by Ajda Kaluža, Founder of Arvio, ultimately pointed to a more pragmatic phase of real estate technology adoption. AI may dominate the conversation, but its value depends on the quality of the underlying data and the ability to integrate it into real business processes. Rather than replacing real estate professionals, the panellists largely saw technology as a way to reduce repetitive work, improve access to information, accelerate decisions and allow people to focus on areas where experience and judgement still matter most.
