Heimstaden, the European residential real estate operator, is deploying OpenAI technologies to change how it manages, markets and operates thousands of homes. The company’s aim is to empower employees and redesign core processes toward more autonomous, AI-supported operations.
Decision and objectives
In June 2025 Heimstaden’s leadership chose to accelerate its investment in artificial intelligence and selected OpenAI after evaluating several platforms. The initiative is intended to both enable staff with new tools and training and to rethink processes across the property lifecycle so buildings can increasingly anticipate needs, coordinate work and support decisions.
"The purpose of our buildings hasn't changed," said Helge Krogsbøl, Co-CEO at Heimstaden. "We provide homes for people. But the way we operate them continues to change as we challenge conventions and adopt new technology." He added that AI is seen as one of the biggest opportunities to speed that transformation.
How AI supports letting
When an apartment becomes vacant, traditional steps include price assessment, photography, advertisement creation and market response. Heimstaden now uses AI to assist across these stages:
- Pricing: recommendations and intelligence from tools built with ChatGPT Sites.
- Advertising: AI-driven image styling and automated apartment descriptions.
- Listing review: agents check live ads against Heimstaden’s quality standards.
- Feedback: AI-generated market feedback helps letting teams take corrective action and supports more dynamic pricing.
Employees remain responsible for reviewing and approving outputs, but the preparatory work and information flow around decisions are changing.
Measurable impacts: image costs and savings
In the Netherlands the cost of producing a virtually staged property image fell from about €50 to less than €0.10 — a reduction of over 99%. Heimstaden estimates the annual savings potential in that market alone at roughly €130,000. Beyond lower ad costs, applying AI across letting shortens time-to-market and creates a more responsive process.
The three-pillar AI strategy
"Our AI strategy is based on three pillars," said Nikolaj Brammer, Heimstaden’s Chief Digital Officer. "First, we empower employees through training and access to the right tools. Second, we have a central transformation office and a network of AI champions to drive larger AI initiatives. Third, we strengthen the foundations by making our property management systems and data models ready for AI."
These pillars are applied in letting: staff use tools and training to create virtual images and listings; the central team coordinates improvements across pricing, advertising, ad review and market feedback; and property data is prepared for the AI tools that support pricing and listing creation.
Data work and new capabilities
Tasks that previously required heavy software engineering are being addressed by non-developer specialists using AI-assisted tools. Julia Erlandsen, an environmental sustainability analyst at Heimstaden, used Codex to develop an approach for discovering, cleaning and standardising scattered public data to assess environmental risks across the portfolio.
Results included assessment of 20,112 assets, generation of more than six million rows of useful data, and a reduction in estimated delivery effort from five people over one year to two people over two months. The company also avoided hiring external consultants.
What began as a complex analytical project is becoming a repeatable capability that supports climate-risk assessments, reporting requirements and investor decision-making. "Codex helped us build a solution that would previously have required substantial technical support. We now own the methodology and can continue developing it ourselves," Erlandsen said.
Employee adoption and governance
Heimstaden focused on tasks where employees needed help. After ChatGPT Enterprise launched in September 2025, half of employees were using it within two to three months. A central AI transformation office maintains a library of use cases so colleagues can learn from examples across the business.
Staff use approved tools within data security rules and remain responsible for reviewing AI-generated content and approving decisions. Adoption has spread to caretakers and other non-technical staff; in Norway, for example, a caretaker used ChatGPT to assess a neglected apartment and draft a prioritized refurbishment plan.
"People across the business are finding practical ways to use AI in their daily work. Our job is to scale what works while keeping data secure, responsibilities clear and people in control," the company says.
Next steps: cross-system coordination and Amplio Estate
Heimstaden is preparing systems that let AI work across applications and coordinate multi-step processes. Its Procurement Intelligence Platform, being rolled out, combines workflow automation with OpenAI models accessed via APIs and is designed to operate across Outlook, SharePoint and Teams to support contract analysis, negotiation preparation and contract lifecycle management — with employees retaining responsibility for commercial decisions and approvals.
Longer term, Heimstaden is co-developing Amplio Estate, a modern property management system designed to support AI-powered workflows through MCP. The ambition is to enable staff to use AI (such as ChatGPT) to retrieve property information and take actions in core business systems under appropriate human oversight. This work is part of turning the idea of self-operating buildings into a practical roadmap.
Key takeaways
- Image production costs in the Netherlands fell by more than 99%.
- 20,112 property assets were assessed using Codex, generating over six million rows of data and reducing effort from five people for one year to two people for two months.
- 50% employee adoption of ChatGPT Enterprise occurred within two to three months of rollout.
Heimstaden emphasises that people, not technology, are the limiting factor: adoption and imagination determine returns. The company’s vision foresees buildings supported by increasingly intelligent systems that help employees make better decisions and resolve customer issues more quickly. The homes themselves remain the same; the way they are operated has permanently changed.
