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AI can cut real estate construction costs, halve project timelines, and reduce delays, benefiting homebuyers
AI can lower construction costs, speed up completion, and cut wastage, benefits that could reach homebuyers, experts said at Credai Natcon 2025 in Singapore
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a game-changer for real estate projects. It has the potential to reduce construction costs, shorten project timelines, and minimise delays and wastage, directly benefiting homebuyers, Boman Irani, chairman of Credai, told HT.com on the sidelines of CREDAI Natcon 2025, which is being held in Singapore.
“The use of Artificial Intelligence in real estate will transform the way projects are executed,” he said. “AI enables us to improve efficiency, cut costs, and accelerate timelines by reducing delays and wastage.”
He said that once AI engines are fully trained and widely adopted, the impact on construction economics will be significant. “Developers will be in a position to pass on these savings to homebuyers, ultimately bringing down property prices. This marks a fundamental shift where technology not only makes projects faster and more efficient but also makes housing more affordable.”
AI has the potential to cut construction costs by 20–25% and shorten construction timelines by 40–50% for high rises and minimise delays, thereby directly benefiting homebuyers, Jay Shah, founder of Kaizen AI, told HT.com
AI can help optimise usable space
Industry leaders at the conference highlighted how AI-driven optimization is transforming the way real estate projects are planned and executed. By simulating multiple design scenarios, construction loadings, and excavation challenges, AI enables developers to pinpoint the most efficient project blueprint. This helps minimize delays, cut costs, and maximize usable space, critical factors in high-demand markets, they said.
“We took inputs like basic drawings, project plans, ran numerous iterations through AI, and we were able to get the design outcomes within seven days. In the process, we managed to maximise structural efficiency and maximize parking capacity,” Shah, whose company helps in enhancing the efficiency of large-scale real estate developments, said.
AI can help optimise apartment space, bring down construction costs
Shah explained that in one of the projects, they were able to optimise the real estate design to increase the carpet area of the apartments by over 1 lakh sq ft. In another luxury project, the Marriott Executive Apartments in Navi Mumbai, AI-driven optimisation of planning and design helped reduce the construction timeline from five years to just three.
Shah cited an example of an ongoing project close to Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai, a high-rise development with a scale of over 300 meters, which is also being developed by a listed developer. Typically, for a 150-meter building, the benchmark ratio of RERA carpet area to total construction area falls between 2.0 and 2.25. However, given the height and complexity of this project, optimisation of design parameters was critical to balance feasibility, efficiency, and timelines.
In the first design option rendered by the AI, the project required 29.1 lakh sq. ft. of constructed area with a loading of 3.12, but involved excavating 18 meters of hard rock near the sea, adding nearly two years just to reach ground level. The second option, with 37% mechanical parking, reduced the area to 26.26 lakh sq. ft. and loading to 2.82, while cutting excavation to 10 meters, limiting delays to about one year, Shah said.
AI can help to unlock stuck, delayed real estate projects
Shah pointed out that his company is currently working on a project in Navi Mumbai that is expected to be delivered within the next quarter. “Brownfield projects often remain stalled because there is no scope to expand, while Floor Space Index (FSI) norms may have changed since the project was first approved,” he explained.
“By applying AI-based optimization, we can reconfigure the design within existing constraints, making the development profitable for the developer by an average of 10% margin, while ensuring long-delayed homes are finally delivered to homebuyers,” he said.
Also Read: Mumbai redevelopment to unlock more than 44,000 homes worth ₹1.3 lakh crore by 2030: Knight Frank
He said that the company is in talks with more developers to unlock such stuck projects, but did not share more details.
The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), representing private real estate developers, is hosting the 23rd edition of its flagship event, CREDAI NATCON 2025, in Singapore from September 11–13, 2025.
The author is in Singapore at the invitation of Credai
