The Rise of Human Energy as the Next Great Real Estate Innovation

Smart Building Technology

Author

Franco Faraudo
November 26, 2025

Propmodo Technology

By Franco Faraudo · November 26, 2025

Greetings,

The big news this week is the RealPage settlement, which landed with far less force than many expected. RealPage got off lightly; instead of fines, damages, or an admission of wrongdoing, the company faces a three-year behavioral overhaul limiting how fresh and localized its rent data can be. The core business remains intact, the customer base huge, and demand for software-driven revenue management keeps growing as operators hunt for efficiency in a softening rental market. By avoiding a financial penalty and harsher remedies, RealPage now has room to rewrite its playbook, rebuild trust, and keep steering the industry’s shift toward data-heavy decision making. The settlement may change how RealPage operates, but not its trajectory. If anything, it cements the company’s staying power in a sector with few scaled rivals.

This week we are exploring a new frontier in the built world: human energy, the idea that buildings create more value by elevating the people inside them than by optimizing their mechanical systems. As intelligent infrastructure evolves, spaces are beginning to learn and adapt in real time—tuning light, air, acoustics, and temperature to support focus, comfort, and cognitive performance. What starts with a single responsive building becomes more powerful when entire networks share data and adjust in harmony, creating environments that boost human output as naturally as they manage power. It’s the shift beyond efficiency toward a built environment that doesn’t just conserve energy, but generates it in its most valuable form—human potential.

Let’s go!

Flash Poll

What’s the biggest challenge in managing your lease portfolio?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Presented by Spacebase

Simplify complex lease calculations with Spacebase’s free amortization schedule template. Built by accountants, for finance teams managing real estate and equipment leases.

Smart Buildings

The Rise of Human Energy as the Next Great Real Estate Innovation

In the future, thanks to advances in technology, buildings will be able to measure the human energy that is created inside of them just like they track energy consumption now.

https://propmodo.com/the-rise-of-human-energy-as-the-next-great-real-estate-innovation/

Lease Management

How New Lease Rules Are Redrawing Real Estate Strategy

With ASC 842, GASB 87, GASB 96 and IFRS 16 reshaping global lease accounting, companies are turning to centralized software to manage compliance and unlock better real estate decision-making.

https://propmodo.com/how-new-lease-rules-are-redrawing-real-estate-strategy/

Bytes

🫆 Data thief on the loose
Major banks are racing to learn more about the data that was hacked from a recent Fintech vendor.

🇪🇺 Europe regulates AI
The European Union has issued new rules giving it a set timeline to write regulation for new technologies like AI.

🫁 Breathing buildings
A train station in Melbourne is pioneering technology for its facade that autonomously removes pollutants and kills airborne viruses.

Overheard

Upcoming Webinar

Smart Building Trends Shaping the Year Ahead

CRE leaders explore how AI, automation, and connected systems will drive smarter, more sustainable, data-driven building performance and occupant experiences in the year ahead.

https://propmodo.com/smart-building-trends-shaping-the-year-ahead/

More Propmodo Technology

The Real Bottleneck in America’s AI Boom Isn’t Chips, It’s Power

AI’s fastest growth is shifting to the power-rich South, straining grids and sparking utility lawsuits as massive GPU clusters reshape America’s data center geography.

https://propmodo.com/the-real-bottleneck-in-americas-ai-boom-isnt-chips-its-power/

How 5D BIM Is Turning Building Models Into Financial Forecasts

5D Building Information Modeling is adding cost and time intelligence to the digital design process, transforming how projects are built—and hinting at what’s next for data-driven construction.

https://propmodo.com/how-5d-bim-is-turning-building-models-into-financial-forecasts/

Multifamily's Chatbot Gambit Replaces Leasing Agents with AI

Multifamily operators are downsizing leasing teams and replacing them with AI chatbots that handle inquiries, tours, and lead nurturing around the clock—reshaping renter engagement and operations.

https://propmodo.com/multifamilys-chatbot-gambit-replaces-leasing-agents-with-ai/

The FASB Rule Changing How Occupiers Think About Real Estate

The FASB’s ASC 842 standard turned leases into balance-sheet items, pushing companies to treat real estate as a strategic asset. Now occupiers are using lease data—and soon AI—to make smarter, more proactive portfolio decisions.

https://propmodo.com/the-fasb-rule-changing-how-occupiers-think-about-real-estate/

Propmodo Technology is edited by Franco Faraudo with contributions from readers like you and the Propmodo team.

📧 Forward it to a friend and suggest they check it out.

🔗 Share a link to this post on social media.

🗣 Have ideas for future topics (or just want to say hello)? Share your feedback and tips at [email protected] or connect with us on X through @propmodo.

✅ Not subscribed yet? Sign up for this newsletter here.

📣 Want to share your marketing message with over 60,000 commercial real estate professionals? Email [email protected] to learn how to sponsor this newsletter.

📫️ Please add our newsletter email, [email protected], to your contacts to make sure you don’t miss any updates.

1