AI for German property management — the questions we answer daily
A living guide to AI in Hausverwaltung: software, pricing, GDPR, EU AI Act, WEG-Reform. Written by an operator, not a consultant.
Key AI vendors compared
The German market splits into ERP core (Aareon, DOMUS, Karthago, Immoware24) and portal/communication layer (Casavi, etg24, iDWELL). AI features in 2026 live mostly in the portal layer. The table below maps the five relevant options for firms with 100-2,000 units (VDIV BB 2025).
| Product | AI features | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Casavi AI Voice Pro (MANAGBL.AI) | Voice AI (up to 15 simultaneous calls), AI-suggested replies in portal, AI Assist in daily ops | If the biggest pain is phone and the Casavi portal is already in place or planned anyway |
| Aareon AAVA | AAVA chat assistant for Aareon customers, Aareon Connect interface to Casavi | If the ERP family is Aareon (Wodis, GES, PowerHaus); limited reach for non-Aareon ERPs |
| SCALARA (Lara) | Booking rules, context-aware help (AI assistant Lara), 24/7 chatbot in progress | Small to mid-size firms under 500 units that are cloud-affine |
| Immoware24 | Tenant + owner chatbot, OCR via modules | Growing cloud-based firms that need integrated tenant communication |
| Vectimo Custom-Stack | Micro-automations on top of existing software (n8n + Claude + DATEV interfaces), human in the loop on every decision | When the ERP landscape is heterogeneous (e.g. DOMUS + Outlook + Excel) and a platform migration is neither financially viable nor desired |
Most asked questions
The three answers below are the start of a growing collection. Each answer is dated and sourced. Send us additional questions and we'll add them.
Which AI tools actually save property managers time?
The biggest realised time savings in 2026 sit in four workflows: (1) mail triage and answer drafting for repetitive tenant and owner queries (60-80% of inbound mail is FAQ-shaped), (2) maintenance request intake with automatic contractor routing, (3) document capture with OCR and ERP integration (the e-invoice mandate effective 1 January 2025 makes this necessary regardless), and (4) arrears automation for service charges and rent. Voice belongs to Casavi, but it only pays off if the portal is on the roadmap anyway. Conservative measurement: 25-50% time reduction across those four workflows — equivalent to 0.5-1 FTE per 1,000 managed units.
How much does AI cost for a 1,000-unit property management firm?
Realistic budgets for a 1,000-unit firm with 6-10 staff: €8,000-€12,000 one-off for setup and integration plus €500-€1,500/month for operation, monitoring and iteration. That's 0.5-3% of annual revenue (at the ~€30/unit/month German WEG fee). First measurable savings show up in 2-3 months; ROI in 6-12 months. Important caveat: this is pricing for targeted micro-automation on top of existing software. Platform migrations (moving to Aareon or Casavi) are an order of magnitude more expensive and are an ERP decision, not an AI decision.
Is AI in German property management GDPR-compliant?
Yes — under three conditions. First: processing on EU-hosted servers (Vercel EU, Neon EU, Azure Frankfurt; all major LLM vendors offer EU endpoints). Second: a Data Processing Agreement (Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag, Art. 28 GDPR) signed with every AI vendor. Third: human in the loop on every decision with external effect (collections, contract changes, dispute handling). On top of that, since August 2026 the EU AI Act applies: AI systems for credit checks or tenant selection fall under 'high-risk' (Annex III) and need a conformity declaration. Pure workflow automation (mail triage, maintenance routing, documents) typically qualifies as 'minimal risk' and is covered by the GDPR measures above.
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