Proptech in Italy: On the Rise

Published on October 3, 2025 and written by Cyril Jarnias

While Italy has traditionally been known for its cultural richness and architectural heritage, a new phenomenon is emerging and transforming the real estate sector: the rise of “proptech”. These innovative technologies are redefining property management, offering digital solutions ranging from virtual property tours to automated transaction management.

In a country where real estate plays a crucial role in the economy, the rapid adoption of these digital tools is revolutionizing the experience for buyers, sellers, and investors. With growing demand for more efficient and personalized services, “proptech” is establishing itself as a driver of change in the Italian landscape, combining tradition and modernity to shape the future of the sector.

Proptech in Italy: An Expanding Sector

Proptech companies in Italy refer to players that combine real estate and digital technologies to reinvent the entire value chain, from design and construction to transaction, management, and asset operation, with solutions such as BIM, digital twins, AI, IoT, virtual reality, collaborative platforms, and process dematerialization. They streamline the user experience, reduce costs and delays, and increase transparency in real estate operations.

Examples of Key Transformations

• Immersive tours and digital marketing of new developments via VR/AR.
• Project design and execution centered around BIM models, with real-time stakeholder coordination.
• Technical management and operation via CMMS, IoT sensors, and digital twins to optimize maintenance and energy performance.
• Online valuation, electronic signature, and data analytics for transactions and rentals.
• Blockchain for traceability and securing exchanges, and automation of rental management flows.

Dimension	Before	With Proptech
Prospecting and Transaction	Physical ads and visits, numerous intermediaries	Smart search, virtual tours, integrated digital journey
Design/Construction	2D plans, sequential coordination	Collaborative BIM, conflict detection, single model
Management/Operation	Reactive maintenance, manual tracking	IoT sensors, continuous monitoring, predictive maintenance
Financing/Insurance	Paper processes, long delays	KYC/electronic contracts, scoring and automation
Market Data	Fragmented	Big data, decision-making dashboards

Statistics and Market Dynamics in Italy

Investments and Players

• Rise of seed and Series A funding rounds in transaction, construction-tech, and asset management segments, driven by the digitalization of developers and property managers.
• Ecosystem composed of several hundred startups covering residential transactions, short and long-term rentals, facility management, energy efficiency, asset management, and digital construction.

Notable Recent Innovations

• Widespread adoption of BIM tools and construction site collaboration platforms.
• Diffusion of IoT sensors for energy performance and predictive maintenance in commercial and residential portfolios.
• Fully digital customer journey (valuation, virtual tour, offer, verification, signature).
• Initial use cases of distributed ledgers for document traceability and asset tokenization.

Quantifiable Trends to Watch

• Growing share of transactions incorporating electronic signature and digital due diligence.
• Increase in the number of connected buildings (measured in managed kWh/m², sensor equipment rate).
• Rising percentage of development projects executed with high maturity level BIM.

Expansion Factors in Italy

• Capital and Investors: Increased involvement of pan-European venture capital funds and corporate real estate venture (developers, asset managers, utilities) to accelerate POC and industrialization.
• Technological Advances: Maturity of cloud, generative AI for technical documentation and customer relations, and low-power IoT for instrumenting existing buildings.
• Consumer Expectations: Demand for omnichannel experiences, price and performance transparency (energy, comfort), and transaction speed.
• Public and Regulatory Framework: Incentives for energy renovation and building decarbonization, performance and traceability requirements favoring digitalization, growing recognition of the probative value of electronic signatures and records.

Italian Success Stories

• Transactional and Rental Management Platforms: Solutions offering data-assisted valuation, virtual tours, tenant scoring, and online signature, reducing lease time and acquisition costs.
• Construtech and BIM: Companies providing collaborative BIM platforms and digital twins, with measured impacts on construction timelines and coordination error reduction.
• Smart Building and Energy: Startups deploying sensors and optimization algorithms, achieving recurring energy savings and improved predictive maintenance for commercial portfolios.
• Data-Driven Asset and Facility Management: Multi-asset management tools, data standardization, and automated ESG reporting for investors and managers.

Challenges for Italian Proptech

• International Competition: Arrival of well-capitalized global players in transaction, management, and smart building segments, pressuring market shares and margins.
• Regulations and Local Fragmentation: Complexity of urban planning-construction standards, diversity of notarial practices and transaction processes across regions, lengthening sales cycles.
• Integration and Interoperability: Heterogeneity of systems among developers, property/facility managers, and funds, requiring robust connectors and data governance.
• Technological Infrastructure: Under-instrumented older building stock, connectivity challenges in some buildings, cybersecurity and data protection.
• Access to Funding and Scaling: Bridge between POC and multi-site deployments, rapid ROI requirements, long B2B sales cycles.

Opportunities and Perspectives

• Growth: Continued digitalization of developers and property managers, rise of energy performance contracts and renovation of residential and commercial portfolios.
• High-Potential Segments: Energy renovation and ESG monitoring, portfolio digital twins, automated rental management, AI for due diligence and asset valuation, regulated tokenization of asset shares.
• Trends to Monitor: Standardization of real estate data, compliance frameworks for AI and cybersecurity, increased integration of construction-operation-investment value chains.
• Internationalization: Pan-European partnerships, expansion to neighboring markets for exportable solutions, consolidation via mergers and acquisitions.

Italian Startups: Revolutionizing Real Estate

Italian proptech startups are accelerating the digital transformation of real estate through property management platforms, augmented/virtual reality tools for property visualization, and automated transaction systems, supported by sector networks and dedicated investors structuring the national ecosystem.

Management and Operation Platforms

• Integrated Asset and Operations Management: solutions combining lease tracking, maintenance, ESG reporting, document flow management, and analytics for owners, managers, and facility managers.
• Location Intelligence and Digital Marketing: mapping modules, location scoring, and campaign automation to accelerate commercialization and reduce vacancy.
• Digital Contracts and Transactions: KYC workflows, electronic signature, data rooms, and timestamping to secure and speed up rental and investment deals.

Immersive Property Visualization

• 3D/VR Tours and interactive floor plans to reduce physical visits, improve lead qualification, and accelerate decision-making.
• AR for Layout: overlay of furnishing options, energy optimization, or usage scenarios, useful in new residential and flexible office spaces.

Transaction and Back-Office Automation

• Tenant/Investor Onboarding: automated document collection, scoring, compliance, and probative archiving to streamline signing and reduce legal friction.
• Ecosystem Integrations: connections with CRM, ERP, banking providers, and identity/AML solutions from a network of specialized investors and partners.

Concrete Examples of Players and Initiatives

– Italian PropTech Network (IPN), driven by Politecnico di Milano, brings together startups and established companies around hubs like management, location intelligence, marketing, and contracts, catalyzing co-innovation with major groups (e.g., Covivio, BNP Paribas Real Estate) and opening to international communities.

– Funds and active investors listed in Italy’s “Top 50 Proptech VC” provide funding and go-to-market support for startups in digital transactions, asset management, and sustainable real estate, strengthening solution industrialization capacity.

Impacts on the Italian Real Estate Market

Economic Impact

• Acceleration of Sales and Rental Cycles thanks to virtual tours, lead scoring, and electronic signature, with lower operational and marketing costs.
• Professionalization of Portfolios: data standardization, KPI-driven management, and tool sharing within networks like IPN, promoting nationwide best practice dissemination.
• Capital Attraction: presence of specialized proptech VCs and corporate partnerships increases funding and adoption, enhancing Italian operators’ competitiveness in European markets.

Societal Impact

• Accessibility and Transparency: 100% digital journeys (prequalification, 3D tours, signature) make access to housing and offices smoother for tenants and SMEs.
• Sustainability: ESG data collection and reporting, energy optimization, and software-driven technical management support cities’ and owners’ climate goals.
• Data-Driven Urban Planning: location intelligence to better plan commerce, services, and mobility, with positive effects on neighborhood vitality.

Major Challenges

• Market Fragmentation: multiplicity of local players and data heterogeneity complicate integrations and platform scalability.
• Regulatory Framework and Compliance: KYC/AML requirements, probative retention, and data protection increase development and enterprise sales costs.
• Adoption by Traditional Players: internal process transformation, change management, and measurable ROI remain critical conditions for large-scale deployments.

Short and Medium-Term Opportunities

• Co-innovation with Owners and Banks via hubs like IPN to co-develop data standards, APIs, and sector-specific use cases.
• Specialized Funding: increase in proptech investors in Italy creates a window for industrializing transactional, asset management, and ESG analytics solutions.
• Solution Export: startups managing to standardize real estate data (contracts, inventories, ESG metrics) can replicate their products in other European markets through the network’s international partnerships.

Summary Table of Proptech Innovation Blocks in Italy

Block	Problem Addressed	Typical Solutions	Main Benefits
Property Management	Manual processes, data silos	Real estate ERP, maintenance, ESG, reporting	OPEX reduction, portfolio visibility
Commercialization	Vacancy, low qualification	3D/VR tours, AR, marketing automation	Leasing acceleration, better conversion
Transactions	Slowness, compliance risks	KYC/AML, electronic signature, data rooms	Security, shortened deadlines
Strategy & Data	Uninformed decisions	Location intelligence, scoring, analytics	Location optimization, pricing

Technological Innovations and Impact on the Real Estate Market

AI, virtual reality (VR/3D tours), big data, and management platforms are redefining the Italian real estate market by improving transparency, transactional efficiency, and customer experience, in a 2024-2025 context marked by cautious recovery and a “technological revolution” recognized as a competitiveness lever by Italian market analysts. Italy approaches 2025 “with momentum”: investors favor quality assets, while digital innovations streamline prospecting, valuation, and property management, especially in hubs like Milan and Rome.

AI and Advanced Analytics

• More accurate price estimation, credit scoring, and lead qualification via predictive models, accelerating matching and reducing information asymmetry for buyers and sellers.
• Commercial opportunity prioritization and CRM automation: in 2025, customer relationship management is the dominant application segment of real estate IT globally, driven by cloud, improving productivity and exchange traceability for Italian agencies.
• More rigorous asset allocation and due diligence for investors, in line with the focus on Class A offices and consolidation of retail/logistics/residential/hospitality segments.

Virtual Reality, 3D Tours, and Immersive Experiences

• Reduction of unnecessary physical visits, remote pre-selection, and accelerated time-to-deal, particularly useful in liquid metropolitan markets (Milan/Rome) and for growing international demand by 2025.
• Improved customer experience via interactive floor plans, digital twins, and virtual home staging, limiting marketing costs and commercialization delays.

Big Data and Market Transparency

• Aggregation of transaction data, listings, and energy performance to inform price formation and risks, in an Italian context where adaptation to ESG standards and portfolio repurposing are major challenges.
• Secure cloud dashboards facilitating information sharing between banks, notaries, and agencies; cloud deployment dominates real estate IT solutions in 2025, thanks to rapid data access and large volume management.

Property and Agency Management Platforms

• Integration of processes (mandate capture, CRM, visit scheduling, offers, signing, rental management) that reduces transactional friction and operational costs for professionals.
• For owners and property managers, tools for rent management, maintenance, and ESG compliance, aligned with the search for energy efficiency and better asset quality in Italy.

Benefits by Player Profile

Buyers

• Greater price and diagnostic transparency, remote immersive tours, shorter decision times thanks to consolidated data and more readable financing conditions in a cautious recovery cycle.

Sellers

• Precise buyer targeting, reduced sales times through AI qualification and immersive marketing, better valuation of high-performing properties (energy class, prime location).

Real Estate Agents

• Productivity gains via dominant cloud CRM and automations, better qualified pipeline, interaction traceability, and enhanced reporting for investors and agency management.

Emergence of Italian Proptech Startups and Sector Influence

Italian analysts highlight the “technological revolution” as one of the three structuring challenges/opportunities of the market, catalyzing innovation to control costs and energy efficiency, and modernizing intermediation practices.

The hubs of Milan and Rome, where investment activity and Class A office supply are strengthening, serve as adoption grounds for data, VR, and cloud management-oriented proptech solutions, influencing service standards (responsiveness, reporting, ESG).

Case Studies and Recent Statistics

In global real estate IT, the CRM segment represents the highest share of applications in 2025, and cloud exceeds 50% of deployments, illustrating the adoption of integrated platforms by Italian agencies and asset managers to accelerate workflows and decision-making.

Italy 2024-2025 outlook indicates gradual recovery, driven by demand for quality assets and an improving mortgage market, a context in which digital tools reduce friction and support liquidity in Milan and Rome.

Table — Key Impacts of Technologies on the Italian Market

Technology	Transformed Processes	Main Benefits	Concerned Players
AI and Analytics	Valuation, scoring, lead qualification	Price transparency, speed, bias reduction	Buyers, sellers, agents
VR/3D Tours	Marketing, visits, pre-selection	Fewer physical visits, better experience	International buyers, sellers
Big Data	Market studies, due diligence	Better price formation, risk management	Investors, agencies
Management Platforms (Cloud)	CRM, transaction, rental management	Productivity, traceability, security	Agencies, property managers, owners

Lists of Economic Impacts

Efficiency and Productivity

• CRM automation and cloud workflows: decreased transaction costs and accelerated sale/rental cycle.

Liquidity and Prime Market Attractiveness

• Improved transparency and immersive marketing amplify qualified demand for quality assets in Milan/Rome, supporting volumes and prices in a consolidation phase.

Portfolio Quality and ESG Compliance

• Data-ESG tools guide renovation capex and asset repurposing, improving long-term value and project bankability.

Points of Caution

Data fragmentation and structural low liquidity in some Italian segments require interoperability standards and unified platforms to fully realize transparency gains.

Macro risks (geopolitics, industrial policies) potentially modulating investment pace and technology adoption, despite favorable 2025 fundamentals.

AI, VR, big data, and cloud platform innovations form the core of the Italian real estate market’s technological revolution: they increase transparency, compress transactional timelines, and elevate customer experience, while guiding capital allocation towards higher quality assets, notably in Milan and Rome.

Blockchain and Real Estate Transactions in Italy

Blockchain is integrating into Italian real estate through experimentation with distributed ledgers for title authentication, document timestamping, asset tokenization, and post-transaction flow automation, driven by PropTech pilot projects and public digital modernization initiatives, although adoption remains selective and uneven across regions and players. Real estate represents about 9% of blockchain use cases in Italy (behind finance/insurance), a sign of real but still emerging interest at the market scale.

Increased Transparency

• Immutable and shared ledgers to trace diligence steps (offers, agreements, fund deposits, mortgages), reducing information asymmetry between sellers, buyers, notaries, and banks.
• Timestamping and proof of document integrity (titles, diagnostics, expert reports), facilitating audits and compliance.

Reduced Transaction Costs

• Fewer intermediaries and duplicate checks thanks to smart contracts for escrow, conditional payment, and automated guarantee release.
• Streamlining of KYC/AML exchanges and property verification, limiting administrative fees and billed time.

Speed of Land Registration Processes

• Potential integration between distributed ledgers and cadastre/mortgage registry systems to accelerate deed-to-registration transition, reducing delays from reconciliations and manual checks.
• Near real-time processing of events (signature, financing, lien release), with reduction of procedural queues when authorities accept digital proofs anchored on blockchain.

Application Examples in Italy

Tokenization and PropTech-Driven Sales

• Real estate asset tokenization projects to fractionalize economic ownership, improve liquidity, and open access to small investors, driven by startups and private initiatives while real estate holds a notable share of the local blockchain market.
• Cryptocurrency payments in certain sales operations, backed by compliance procedures and conversion to fiat currency according to the current tax framework.

Document Traceability and Due Diligence

• Use of blockchains to seal technical files, rental states, and maintenance histories, to secure the data-room during corporate transactions and portfolio deals, with auditability benefits already observed in other Italian sectors and transposed to real estate.

Post-Closing Automation

• Deployment of smart contracts to coordinate payments, capital calls, and notifications to stakeholders (bank, registrar, insurer), reducing operational friction and timing disputes.

Challenges to Overcome

Regulation and Legal Recognition

• Need to align blockchain proof with formal requirements of notarial deeds, land registration, and securities, as well as with digital asset and tokenized operation taxation.
• Clarification of MiCA/Transfer of Funds/KYC regimes when interfacing with real estate transactions, and articulation of responsibilities between platforms, notaries, and financial institutions.

Adoption by Professionals

• Heterogeneity of digital skills among notaries, agents, bankers, and mortgage registries, hindering interoperability and process standardization.
• Reluctance due to change costs, cybersecurity, and key management, despite identified operational benefits.

Technological Fragmentation

• Multiplicity of private and public solutions, interoperability challenges between blockchains and existing systems, and need for standards for real estate data formats.

Initiatives and Market Dynamics

Public Initiatives

• Awareness and framing actions from national academic observatories tracking and catalyzing use cases (including real estate), with quantified monitoring of sector share and adoption priorities.
• Relative stability of digital asset tax framework in the short term (rate maintained, announced trajectory), providing better predictability for payment and tokenization projects associated with transactions.

Private Initiatives

• PropTech startups and integrators offering tokenization solutions, blockchain-anchored data-rooms, shared KYC, and automated closing workflows, with gradual progression from POC to operational pilots in commercial and residential real estate.
• Innovative firms and notaries testing timestamping and programmable escrow schemes to reduce delays and counterparty risks.

Link with the Rise of PropTech Companies in Italy

Real estate concentrates a visible share of Italian blockchain projects, reflecting PropTech interest in end-to-end transaction digitalization, fractional investment access, and operational efficiency.

The combination of tokenization solutions, regulated digital payments, and immutable document registries stimulates new models (quick sale, retail syndication, private secondary markets), while requiring bridges with existing regulation and notarial practices.

As PropTech standardizes interoperability with banks and land offices, a reduction in transaction costs and closing times is observed, improving market liquidity and attractiveness for domestic and international investors.

Summary Table

Key Aspect	Blockchain Contribution	Status in Italy	Expected Impact
Transparency	Document and step traceability	POC and sector pilots	Increased trust, reduced disputes
Costs	Automation via smart contracts	Progressive adoption	-10 to -30% operational costs per use case (contextual estimate)
Speed	Timestamping and register integration	Depends on public integrations	Days/weeks saved on registration
Liquidity	Asset tokenization	Growing PropTech projects	Broadened investor access
Compliance	Shared KYC/AML	Framework under structuring	Reduced redundancies, facilitated audit

Key Takeaways

• Italy is actively exploring blockchain in real estate, with expected gains in transparency, cost, and timing, but industrialization depends on legal recognition and public-private interoperability.
• Growing visibility of PropTech and tax predictability on digital assets create a more favorable ground for blockchain-backed transactions.