Research, analysis, and perspectives on the built world.
AI automation is now deployable across almost every stage of the real estate development lifecycle. This piece maps where automation is live today -- from site screening and due diligence to pro forma modeling and IC prep -- and how development teams should sequence deployment to maximize ROI.
April 25, 2026 ·4 min read
AI agents differ from chatbots and copilots in one critical way: they execute multi-step workflows using tools, memory, and planning. This piece explains how agents work, where institutional development teams are deploying them in 2026 -- site sourcing, due diligence, market analysis, IC prep -- and what to evaluate before selecting one.
April 25, 2026 ·4 min read
Real estate development generates hundreds of documents per project. AI automation reliably handles due diligence extraction, lease abstraction, draw package assembly, and IC memo drafting -- but PSAs, development agreements, and complex construction contracts still require legal review. This piece maps the boundary.
April 25, 2026 ·4 min read
Sovereign wealth funds including GIC, ADIA, Mubadala and PIF have rotated aggressively into digital infrastructure real estate, concentrating capital in data centers, fiber networks and energy assets. This piece covers which funds are leading the allocation, why the shift is structural rather than cyclical, and three practical implications for development teams navigating a market where sovereign-backed platforms are setting the pace.
April 24, 2026 ·4 min read
Self-storage has become a core institutional asset class, and the 2022-2024 supply wave is clearing in most markets. This piece covers the demand model, product type breakdown, site screening criteria and pro forma framework institutional developers use to evaluate new development, plus where AI compresses site screening and underwriting time.
April 24, 2026 ·5 min read
The cost-to-complete analysis is the monthly document that tells lenders and development teams how much money is left to finish a building. This piece covers the three failure modes that make CTCs unreliable, how AI addresses each one through front-loading detection, pending change order aggregation and line-level burn rate alerts, and what still requires human judgment.
April 24, 2026 ·4 min read
Foundation model selection has a direct impact on CRE workflow accuracy, cost and analytical depth. This guide maps GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini and o-series models to specific development tasks and provides an evaluation framework covering context window, tool use reliability, structured output fidelity and cost at scale. Teams routing by task type rather than defaulting to a single model cut inference cost 40-60% while improving accuracy on high-stakes outputs.
April 23, 2026 ·4 min read
Broker opinions of value are produced at significant volume across brokerage and development advisory teams, and the research-heavy components are highly automatable. AI now handles comparable selection, adjustment grid construction, market narrative and document generation while human judgment retains the value conclusion, submarket expertise and professional sign-off. The result is a BOV that takes two to three hours rather than half a day, with a more complete and consistent research layer underneath.
April 23, 2026 ·4 min read
Medical office buildings have sustained above-90% occupancy through the office correction, driven by structural healthcare demand from aging demographics and the accelerating shift to ambulatory outpatient care. This guide covers the site selection criteria that differentiate MOBs from general office development, health system leasing dynamics in 2026 including consolidation risk, and where AI compresses the physician network mapping, regulatory research and pro forma modeling that define the MOB underwriting process.
April 23, 2026 ·5 min read