Real estate companies have evolved far beyond just buying, selling, and managing property. Developers and property management companies are now becoming data-intensive organisations collecting large amounts of highly sensitive personal information about tenants, buyers, vendors and employees. The evolution of the real estate industry is resulting in it becoming one of the largest custodians of sensitive personal information as the industry continues to digitise its processes.
The evolution of the industry has highlighted the fact that real estate companies now have access to the same types of information as financial institutions and/or health care providers. For instance, recent cyber security events have shown that many real estate companies like Rockrose Development LLC (who had a significant data breach in July 2025) are collecting and holding the same type of sensitive personal information as other industries. In addition to general identifying documents, banking information, etc., modern real estate transactions can include or require sensitive health-related information such as medical records and test results.
One of the primary reasons for the increase in the amount of sensitive data being collected by real estate companies is due to the complexity of the real estate lifecycle that is being followed by most real estate companies. In addition to leasing applications and background checks, financing agreements and insurance paperwork, all of which require detailed personal information from applicants, many high-end residential and commercial properties require extensive screening of applicants. This process can include collecting passports, tax identification numbers, bank account numbers, etc., which all have to be maintained for compliance and/or operational reasons.
The proliferation of property management technology has resulted in an increase in the exposure of data to more individuals. The majority of companies within the Real Estate industry use third-party applications to facilitate the processing of rent payments, maintenance requests, access credentials and resident communications. While these types of applications improve efficiency and convenience, they also increase the likelihood that an individual may have access to additional locations where sensitive data is stored and/or transmitted. Additionally, each integration introduces a new entry point for potential vulnerabilities if security measures are not consistently enforced across all integrations.
Long-term retention of data is another reason for the enhanced risk. Due to regulatory, contractual, tax purposes, etc., most Real Estate companies maintain records for a considerable length of time. As time passes, many Real Estate companies have many data repositories that consist of vast amounts of archived data; those repositories may be located on legacy systems or in under-monitored/enforced cloud storage. As those repositories grow larger in size and quantity, the Criminal Elements of Society will become increasingly attracted to those data repositories, especially if they can retrieve complete identity profiles instead of just random data points.
Moreover, the type of information contained in the data repositories increases the risk. Unlike a Credit Card number, which can easily be replaced, Social Security Numbers, Passports and other forms of personal identification cannot easily be replaced. When those forms of ID become compromised, there is a high likelihood that they will be used for Identity Theft, Financial Fraud or Social Engineering, long after the Original Transactions have been completed.
In addition to the methods that real estate companies use to protect their information, human and operational factors significantly influence how and why companies are at risk of losing data. A real estate company has a multitude of external partners such as contractors, brokers, etc., with whom they do business. They might give those external partners temporary access to their internal systems. Without sufficient access controls and routine audits of partner activity, the relationships can inadvertently increase a company's risk of exposure. Part-time employees might also be assigned multiple tasks and fail to recognize activities where a phishing attempt is taking place or where they are observing unusual system behavior.
Increasingly, as the real estate sector moves towards digitalisation, the concept of data stewardship and the protection of client data is becoming an area of primary focus, rather than a back-office concern. Companies that take the initiative to implement access controls, encryption, employee training, and data minimization are likely to be in a better position to maintain the confidence of their clients and tenants. Given the reliance on building long-term relationships and maintaining a good reputation in the industry, it is very important to maintain the integrity of that personal data similar to protecting the integrity of physical assets.
