Digitization of the property development industry: overview of current literature and research gaps

Abstract

The construction industry has a high status in Germany. Property developers historically come from the construction industry. In terms of digital maturity, however, they lag well behind the general construction industry. In this paper, the author analyzes the current literature on digital transformation and digital maturity, focusing on the construction industry and property developers. The method he chose was a structured literature review. The aim is to identify the current state of research, particularly on the topic of 1) digitization of the construction industry and 2) digitization within the property development sector. The question arises as to why the topic of digitization is so underrepresented among property developers. Even without considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, recent years have seen no acceleration in the use of digitalization among builders than other industries. The literature review shows that developers need to change their business strategies to reposition their business and respond to environmental changes. The current good economic situation overshadows any further digitization pressure caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but to achieve competitive advantages in the long term, digitization of the value chain is necessary. In this context, gaps in current research will also be identified, which will be the starting point for future research.