# Connecting property data across organisations

> ZHAW researched a digital property dossier that connects data and process events across a building's lifecycle and across independent organisations. Smart contracts and distributed-ledger technology were intended to support exchange without creating one central master database.

**Sector:** Quaternary sector · **Industry:** High tech and innovation · **Organisation:** ZHAW · **Maturity level:** Pilot

Canonical URL: https://www.sapientblock.com/en/use-cases/zhaw-immobiliendaten-dezentral-vernetzen

## Documentation status

- **Project status:** Unknown
- **Evidence:** Evidence high
- **Editorial review:** SapientBlock Redaktion, 17 September 2026

## Description

Building data is created during planning, financing, construction, operation, renovation and sale in many separate systems. The digital property dossier is intended to make relevant events and evidence findable and verifiable across organisational boundaries, while the specialist data remains with the responsible partners.

The ZHAW project on the digital property dossier investigated a customer-oriented platform for real estate transactions and the lifecycle of buildings. The starting point is distributed data holdings among actors such as owners, planners, banks, insurers, administrations and authorities. Instead of collecting all information in a central database, a distributed ledger architecture was intended to coordinate confirmed events and access rules between partners. Smart contracts map process steps and permissions. The ZHAW study and the official project page demonstrate the research and prototype character. They provide no evidence of a current widespread production operation. The use case therefore primarily shows an architecture and governance pattern for shared real estate data.

## Benefits

- Fewer data copies
- Coordinated processes
- Data sovereignty with partners
- Better transparency of object information
- Verifiable data provenance
- Cross-organisational traceability
- Less search and coordination effort

## Technology foundation

Authorized distributed ledger architecture and smart contracts; specialist data mostly remains in the core systems of the participating organisations.

## Sources

- [Digitales Immobiliendossier](https://www.zhaw.ch/de/forschung/projekt/71483)
- [Digitales Immobiliendossier – Studie](https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/items/06028294-98ae-400c-b209-490734fea3d0)
- [Fintech-Interview: Künstliche Intelligenz darf keine Black Box sein](https://www.zhaw.ch/de/ueber-uns/aktuell/news/detailansicht-news/event-news/fintech-interview-kuenstliche-intelligenz-darf-keine-black-box-sein)