AI Hasn’t Replaced Real Estate Accountants, but It Might Change the Industry Forever

Real estate accounting has always been more than balancing spreadsheets. It’s the hidden scaffolding that keeps portfolios upright. Valuations, audits, compliance filings, lease reconciliations. These processes have long been seen as ripe for automation, and with the arrival of artificial intelligence, the idea of a “self-driving” accounting department suddenly doesn’t feel so far-fetched. But the truth is less dramatic. AI is reshaping the work of accountants in real estate, but it’s doing so in fits and starts, and always with a human hand still on the wheel.

The industry is watching closely as AI adoption picks up. One report shows that more than two-thirds of large real estate firms now use AI somewhere in their finance functions, often in tasks like lease data extraction or portfolio risk management. The results, however, are uneven. Some AI tools can process hundreds of pages of lease clauses in seconds but stumble when asked to compare terms across properties. Others draft reports that look clean at first glance but require careful review to weed out inconsistencies. Accuracy, liability, and trust are recurring sticking points. In real estate, where a single accounting misstep can unravel a multimillion-dollar deal, no firm is willing to outsource judgment entirely to an algorithm...