This book is the first to employ a holistic approach to assess innovation dynamics in the real estate industry. The contributing authors explain the relevant innovation management theories, demonstrate how they can be applied, and assess their impacts on real estate markets and players. The most important fields of innovation are presented and analyzed by leading experts, who address technological, organizational, financial and societal aspects. The impacts for the key real estate sectors are presented, and potential new markets are developed. Accordingly, readers will gain comprehensive insights into the significance and disruptive power of innovations that reshape real estate and the built environment. 

Written by scholars and practitioners from around the world, the book is intended for open-minded real estate practitioners and for business leaders operating in adjacent sectors. It argues that the technological and societal changes already underway today will heavily impact and reshape real estate, and will create significant opportunities for the fast-movers while posing serious risks for those that fail to keep pace.

Tobias Just is Managing Director at the IRE|BS Immobilienakademie and professor for Real Estate at the University of Regensburg. Tobias studied economics in Hamburg and Uppsala (Sweden). In 1997 he graduated and started to work at the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg. For more than ten years Tobias worked at Deutsche Bank Research, the economics research unit of Deutsche Bank. He headed the units’ sector and real estate research team and was a member of Deutsche Bank’s group wide Environmental Steering Committee. In summer 2006 Tobias was Research Fellow at the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC. Tobias published more than 100 papers in professional and academic journals and books. Since November 2011 Tobias has been Managing Director at the IRE|BS Immobilienakademie and has a chair for Real Estate at the University of Regensburg. He is President of the German Society of Property Researchers (gif),editor of the ZIÖ – the German Journal of Real Estate Research and a member of the Executive Management Board of the German section of the Urban Land Institute. In 2013 Tobias was elected “Head of the German real estate industry” by leading real estate journalists, and in 2015 he was ranked among the leading German economists by the Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung (FAZ).

Bing Wang is Faculty Co-Lead of Asia Lab and Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research and teaching focus on global market dynamics and the intersection of value creation, urban innovation and transformation in the context of entrepreneurship and technological advancements. From 2012 to 2025, she served on the faculty of Harvard University as Associate Professor in practice of real estate and the built environment. During her tenure, she held several academic leadership positions, including Faculty Area Head of the Master in Real Estate of Design Studies program and Faculty Co-Chair of Executive Education offered by the Harvard Design School and Harvard Business School. Professor Wang has served on the Steering Committee of Harvard China Fund and as a Board Director of the American Real Estate Society. She has held editorial and advisory roles with leading academic journals and publications in the USA, Europe, and Asia. Her publications include books, journals and scholarly essays. Among her books are Understanding China's Real Estate Markets (2021), Global Leadership in Real Estate and Design (2015), Prestige Retail: Design and Development Perspectives (2014), and The Architectural Profession of Modern China (2011). She also serves as partners and advisors to corporations and organizations in the fields of real estate, innovation, and artificial intelligence.

Wolfgang Schäfers has served since 2004 as Full Professor and Head of the Chair of Real Estate Management at the IREBS International Real Estate Business School, one of Europe’s leading academic institutions in real estate. As founding Managing Director of IREBS, he played a key role in establishing the MSc Real Estate program. His research focuses on real estate asset pricing, big data analytics, infrastructure investments, and leadership in real estate. He has supervised more than 30 doctoral dissertations and published extensively in leading academic journals and textbooks. Alongside his academic career, he held senior positions at Arthur Andersen, Sal. Oppenheim, and IVG Immobilien, and currently serves on the Supervisory Board of DEKA Immobilien.