ZIA and Aroundtown Present “Innovation of the Year” Awards at the Day of the Real Estate Industry ZIA Innovation Radar 2026 showcases outstanding innovations across three categories

Berlin, May 19, 2026 – The German Property Federation (ZIA), the leading association of the real estate industry, and Aroundtown, one of Europe's largest real estate companies, jointly presented the "Innovation of the Year" awards across a total of three categories at the Day of the Real Estate Industry Day (TDI), before an audience of approximately 1,800 representatives from business, politics, and society.

The "Innovations of the Year" of the 2026 ZIA Innovation Radar are:

• Category Design & Build: CEPA® Energy Façade by TOWERN3000 Projekt- & Medienagentur GmbH
  A prefabricated exterior façade system that combines insulation, heating, and cooling in a single renovation step—executed entirely from the outside—requiring no interior work within individual apartments and no relocation of residents. The jury commented: “The CEPA Energy Façade offers a highly innovative and potentially disruptive approach for a market facing a significant backlog of renovation needs. Particularly compelling are its complete prefabrication and its circularity.”
  
• Category Real Estate: “Social Impact Dashboard” by Midstad Advisory GmbH
  A data-driven analysis of the societal impact of real estate projects and inner-city locations—making the “S” in ESG measurable and optimizing the property’s usage concept. “The dashboard establishes a reliable basis for decision-making regarding sustainable inner-city transformations and impressively demonstrates how data-driven analyses can generate genuine societal added value,” the jury explained.
  
• Category PropTech: EnerCube GmbH
  A fully prefabricated heat pump module designed for exterior installation, featuring significantly reduced noise emissions and incorporating integrated thermal storage, hydraulics, hot water preparation, and control technology. In the words of the jury: “EnerCube addresses the stalled decarbonization of existing multi-family housing stock, providing one of the most compelling proofs to date that the transition to sustainable heating in existing buildings is industrially scalable.”

Press release: ZIA and Aroundtown seek Innovation of the Year
In 2026, the format was further developed: the ZIA's previous "PropTech of the Year" award was integrated and the Innovation Radar was expanded to include the perspective of the construction industry. Since then, outstanding solutions have been honoured as "Innovation of the Year" in the categories Real Estate, Design & Build and PropTech.

Inclusion in the Innovation Radar follows a review process conducted by a jury comprising members of the ZIA Innovation Think Tank (ITT) as well as additional experts from academia and industry. Submissions are evaluated based on clearly defined criteria, including degree of innovation, scalability, and sustainability. Over 80 submissions were evaluated based on clearly defined criteria such as degree of innovation, scalability, and sustainability. Ultimately, 63 innovations made it onto this year's radar—three of which were particularly compelling.

By presenting the awards at the Day of the Real Estate Industry, the ZIA Innovation Radar is firmly embedded in the industry’s central dialogue, underlining the importance of innovation as a key driver for the future viability of the real estate and construction sectors.