How property management education may evolve or the next generation of leaders

A discussion about future training can start with the skills employers expect to value. The World Economic Forum reported in 2025 that surveyed employers expected 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030. Its findings placed analytical thinking first among current core skills and also identified technological literacy, empathy, active listening, and lifelong learning as important.

The research covers multiple industries, so it does not determine what property management programs need to teach. It provides broader context for considering how professional education could evolve.

For property management, that discussion could include how established real estate subjects relate to newer technological tools. Courses may continue to cover areas such as budgets, leases, maintenance, financial operations, and tenant communication.

Where appropriate, educators might also consider introducing methods for assessing AI-supported analysis, checking information, and identifying when further context is needed. The emphasis could vary by role, property type, and level of experience.

Recent real estate research offers one reason that question may be timely. PwC reported that firms were generally exploring AI for administrative and recurring tasks with consistent deliverables. At this early stage, the report explains job transformation as more common than employee replacement.

That pattern may support helping future managers understand how to review and apply AI-supported work responsibly.

Technology forms only one part of the training discussion. A 2024 Deloitte analysis estimated that nearly 40% of the U.S. real estate workforce would reach retirement age within 10 years. Among existing leaders, the estimate was 59%. Those figures concern retirement age and do not predict when individuals will leave their positions.

Deloitte nevertheless presented two-way mentorship as one possible response, allowing experienced professionals to share sector knowledge while younger colleagues help established teams become more familiar with digital tools.

Bob Murray believes that combination could inform how the profession prepares new entrants. He has more than four decades in residential and commercial real estate and serves as a commercial property manager with Playhouse Square Management.

The Cleveland organization provides commercial property and facility management, asset management, and real estate consulting services. Murray is also president of the IREM Northern Ohio Chapter. “Education can keep the fundamentals in view while making room for the way the work is changing,” he explains.

In Murray’s experience, property management can involve financial analysis, physical operations, and conversations among people with different priorities. He therefore considers finance, accounting, budgeting, and management useful areas of study for those entering the field.

Digital systems may help organize information, while the manager still needs to interpret what the figures could mean for a particular owner, tenant, or property.”A business or finance background can provide a helpful foundation,” Murray observes. “It can also prepare someone to ask more informed questions.”

He sees technological fluency as another possible part of that preparation. From Murray’s perspective, learning to use AI could include framing a clear request, examining the response, recognizing missing context, and confirming important information. He cautions against treating an AI-generated answer as a completed decision. “Using the tool is one skill,” he notes. “Taking the time to review its output and decide whether it fits the situation is another.”

Interpersonal development may deserve continued attention. Property managers can encounter conversations involving lease terms, vendor coordination, owner concerns, and problems affecting occupants. Murray believes classroom discussion can introduce communication principles, although practical experience may help people understand how those principles apply in different situations.

“Knowledge matters, and clients also need to feel that the manager has listened carefully, prepared properly, and can follow through,” he explains.

Murray frames the Northern Ohio chapter’s educational outreach as one way to create that exposure. According to him, its activities include classroom talks, meeting invitations, scholarships, and connections to internships and employment opportunities.

He also notes that interested students may receive complimentary membership and learn from experienced property managers. In his view, cooperation among educational institutions, employers, and professional organizations could give students more opportunities to connect formal learning with the realities of managing properties.

Murray believes one course of study may not prepare a person for every property, client, or technological change. He favors a broader professional foundation that brings together financial understanding, digital awareness, communication, and practical experience. That approach would still leave room for people to develop through mentoring and work over time.

His perspective suggests that preparing the next generation may be an ongoing process, shaped by the profession they gradually encounter.